Bryce's Blog - Magical Index//blog.brycecampbell.me/2018-02-27T00:00:00-08:00Book Review: A Certain Magical Index Volume 142018-02-27T00:00:00-08:002018-02-27T00:00:00-08:00Bryce Campbelltag:blog.brycecampbell.me,2018-02-27:book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-14.html
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index14.jpg" width="209" height="314" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 14 cover">
<p>I hope you all have been having a good week, even if it has
been spent dealing with the monotony of the daily grind.</p>
<p>Aside from things getting thrown off schedule, such as the
constant rescheduling of the final volumes of <cite>Boku Dake ga Inai Machi</cite>,
things have been going fairly well and I can still do. The things I enjoy doing.</p>
<p>Recently, the first of the final two titles I was expecting
to get this month arrived, and it is time to get the book out of the way,
before things get out of hand.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing that title, which is called <a href="http://amzn.com/B077MC4DKR" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume 14</a>
by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over again.</p>
<p>After the events surrounding the Vento&#39;s invasion came to a
close, things seem to have finally become peaceful, as the residents can
continue going about their day.</p>
<p>However, the rest of the world has started to uprisings and
people are turning against Academy City, and while this does not seem like
something with a simple solution, a member of the Board of Directors goes to
make contact with Touma, wanting things to be resolved without the blood shed
that would otherwise take place.</p>
<p>While I have made it pretty clear that I am not particularly
fond of this series, though not enough to consider worse than Accelerator&#39;s own
manga, things have been a bit more interesting in these novels, but I know very
well that it would not remain that.</p>
<p>And after reading this, I must say that I kind of liked this
book.</p>
<p>From the moment that I opened and started reading this book,
I found myself so engrossed in it that I did not want to stopping reading for
any reason.</p>
<p>Back when I first started reading this, I had a really hard
time getting invested in what was going, because the flow of Kazuma Kamachi&#39;s
writing did not pull me in and many the events I found my annoyed with in the
anime adaptations from J.C Staff came off as dull here, except for volumes <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-3.html">3</a>,
which was the best version of Index&#39;s Sisters arc, and <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-4.html">4</a>.</p>
<p>However, ever since the events of the last of the only two
or so good arcs from <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html">Index
2</a> were covered finished up in the recent releases from Yen Press, things
have started to become quite a bit interesting, as the writing has greatly
improved to the point where I did not find myself bored out of my mind, like I
did back in the first two volumes.</p>
<p>One of the most important things that a great work needs to
have is the ability to draw people in, and while there are many ways to do this
in writing, depending on the genre, the thing that really helps draw in the
audience is if the words found in the pages of the book flow so well together
that the reader cannot help but to drawn into the world, regardless of what was
happening, and Kazuma Kamachi was able to finally bring this to the table in
his work.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had not been able to deliver in this capacity, I
would have been mad enough to stop following this series, even if it sometimes
explains things that do not make sense <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>,
because that would mean that I wasted my time on something that is supposed to
be <strong>the</strong> superior series, instead of a spin off that is superior, yet should
not have been needed.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Kazuma Kamachi delivered something decent for
once, and that makes me feel like giving him a bit more applause, especially
since this content actually new to me, unlike the previous 13 volumes.</p>
<p>I also liked how I did not really feel lost too much while
reading this book.</p>
<p>Back when I first delved into this series, which was after
FUNimation made the first anime on iTunes, I had troubles getting into things
because I saw that Touma was trying to help Mikoto Misaka near the beginning
and she attacks for what he did, but I had no idea of why or why he was scared
her.</p>
<p>Even though his fear towards Misaka did make a bit more
sense in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-1.html">first
book</a>, I still kind of felt lost about the whole thing because there seemed
to be something missing and it was only resolved in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun-volume-1.html">first
volume</a> of Railgun&#39;s manga, which kind of ruined my enjoyment of that
volume, along how tedious things felt.</p>
<p>Seeing how this book takes place after the final events
shown the second Magical Index anime, I was kind of worried that I would be
facing the same problem, as Yen Press decided to not published the side story
that took place before this, which the afterword eludes had been published
before this volume, because Kazuma Kamachi does not have that strong of a
record in my book.</p>
<p>Surprisingly though, I did not feel like I was missing
anything while I read this book.</p>
<p>This is what I really wanted to see from the series that is
considered the parent series of the Raildex universe when I first started
reading the novels, and Kazuma was finally able to deliver.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had written this in a way that I absolutely needed
to read the side story that Yen Press decided to ignore, like how I needed to
read the Railgun manga to fully understand the events in the first Index novel,
I would have been very angry at Kazuma for doing something that no reader
should have to deal with, as well as Yen Press for deciding to only release the
mainline novels, whereas they published pretty much every installment of <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/series-review-spice-wolf.html" class="italic">Spice
&#38; Wolf</a>.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that did not happen, so I can give Kazuma
Kamachi another good round applause for a job well done.</p>
<p>Hopefully, he can keep this up in future installments,
because the series finally seems to be on the right trek to becoming great,
though I am not too if it will be able to upset my current ranking of the
Raildex universe series.</p>
<p>Another thing that I kind of liked about this book was how I
was able to get a few actual laughs of it.</p>
<p>While the humor found in this book was not that unique, when
compared to the rest of the series, or even anime and manga general, things
were at least executed well enough that they seemed to be genuinely funny.</p>
<p>One of the things that I kind of do not like about <cite>A
Certain Magical Index</cite> is how the comedic moments just scream that they are
too much like slapstick and come off as something that the audience has seem
numerous times, while only being able generate a bit of a chuckle at best.</p>
<p>Now, some of you guys might be surprised to hear this, since
I do not usually knock down the comedic moments too much, as I do generally let
things like the slapstick found in anime off the hook, but the humor is part of
what gives a series its charm, unlike the awkward moments in American sitcoms
that need laugh tracks to seem funny, and if there is no humor, things tend to
feel a little lifeless.</p>
<p>In this book, Kazuma Kamachi might still be relying on the
same old tricks, but things like the baseball incident towards the beginning
and Misaka becoming mad at Touma because he has her mother&#39;s number ended up
being just as funny as Kuroko Shirai is in the Railgun manga.</p>
<p>If the humor were not as good as it was here, I would have
been very angry, as this series is finally starting to stand out more than just
when certain events take place, and I would rather sing a work&#39;s praises than
wish it shot in the sun or coming off so badly that the creators should not
come out without scratch.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the humor ended up being funny, and helped to
make it easier for me to enjoy reading this book.</p>
<p>There were two things that I liked the most though.</p>
<p>First, the Interludes did not feel like they were unneeded
to the point where there were too many.</p>
<p>Back in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-12.html">12<sup>th</sup>
book</a>, which started off the last of the only two arcs I enjoyed in the
second anime adaptation, I was annoyed with how many of the interludes felt
out-of-place and prevented flow of the book from having a nice, consistent flow
and contributed to why I considered it to be such a terrible book, in spite of
the fact that start of an arc that I was interested in.</p>
<p>Here, however, the interludes actually felt like they
belonged and made me want to continue reading this book, as I was led to
believe that there was quite a bit going on and this was the start of something
much bigger.</p>
<p>Readers, regardless of the kind of work that they are
interested in, want and need reasons to continue reading a book, because that
helps them become invested in a work, and Kazuma Kamachi delivered that in this
volume.</p>
<p>If the interludes felt as pointless as they were back in the
12<sup>th</sup> book, I would have been even more disappointed in Kazuma and
started shaking my head, while wondering why people want a third season of the
Index anime so badly, because it would have made all of Kazuma Kamachi&#39;s
improvements so far look like nothing more than a joke.</p>
<p>Luckily, that did not happen, which makes me want to give
Kazuma another good round of applause.</p>
<p>The second thing that really caught my attention was that
Touma&#39;s Imagine Breaker was revealed to not be all that powerful.</p>
<p>Other than the poor writing, which has plagued quite a few
works in this series already, the thing that I really hated about this series
was how Touma Kamijou practically won every fight through dumb luck and the use
of his all-mighty Imagine Breaker, though I was already aware that it had some
weaknesses, which made things feel less believable, especially to somebody like
me, who has only one good arm to fight with.</p>
<p>Because of this, I viewed Index to be lesser series, as
Touma does not seem to be able to strategize as well as Misaka and the fights
proved to be rather uninteresting.</p>
<p>However, now that it is revealed that Imagine Breaker is not
as powerful as I was led to believe, and that it is seemingly incomplete, I am
actually interested in continuing on with this series, because Kazuma Kamachi
seemed to realize that Touma needed to have some challenge other than having to
fight Accelerator while already heavily injured and has also decided to explore
Imagine Breaker.</p>
<p>If Imagine Breaker were left as it was, I would have dropped
this series sooner or later, because the fights would eventually become just as
dull as they are in the anime and there would be things about Touma that would
be left unanswered.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that did not occur here, and I feel like giving
Kazuma bit more applause.</p>
<p>Hopefully, Imagine Breaker continues to explored throughout
the rest this series, because I do need to have some other reason to continue
following this than just making sure I get explanations for things I see in
Railgun, but seeing as Kazuma Kamachi is human and has failed to impress quite
a few times, I would not be surprised if things go down the drain after this.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
that I particularly liked, at least that stood out as much as what I already
talked about.</p>
<p>Because my interest was captured quickly and held right up
to the end, by having a writing style that actually pulled me in, I did not
feel like I needed to read the preceding side story novel or watch the final
episodes of the second anime adaptation, there were things to laugh about,
Imagine Breaker&#39;s status as a hack was removed, and the Interludes actually
made me more interested in reading the book, this book was a pretty decent
read.</p>
<p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as typos, only one thing really bothered me.</p>
<p>There were quite a few punctuation errors.</p>
<p>Now, some of you guys might be laughing this off, seeing as
my writing is not exactly perfect, and thinking that I should not be one to
talk, but this is still something that needs to be discussed.</p>
<p>One of the reasons great books flow well from beginning to
end is that there are few, if any, moments where the wrong punctuation is used,
which makes it easy for readers to immerse themselves.</p>
<p>However, when punctuation is not placed correctly, things do
not seem to flow as smoothly as they would have, and can make it so that a
reader cannot become immersed too well, and there were quite a few instances of
that occurring in this book.</p>
<p>As much as I want to blame this on Kazuma Kamachi and his
editors over in Japan though, the real blame belongs with Yen Press because
they commissioned the translation found this book and it seems like there was
no proofreading done at all prior to the publication of this, though it was
mainly relegated to comma usage.</p>
<p>While it was not exactly hard for me read through this,
there are people are not as used to reading through things like them, and if
Yen Press actually took the time to proofread the translation more than once,
this book would have been so much better and might have been considered to be
one of the best books that they released.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Yen Press was more concerned about getting
this out on time, and made me wonder if I was really reading things correctly.</p>
<p>Hopefully, things like this do not happen again any time,
because readers want to see that everyone involved in producing did their job
well, and really showed they put effort into it.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that was the only thing that really bothered me,
so I can end things here, instead of having to rip into the book any further.</p>
<p>While there was only one issue, it was not bad enough to
hurt the quality of the book too badly, though it did make it seem like Yen
Press did not proofread things too carefully.</p>
<p>Considering that there was quite a bit to like and the only
problem was not something that really caused damage, this was definitely worth
reading.</p>
<p>I mainly recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical
Index</cite>, as they will will be able to enjoy this the most.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, this might be worth giving a try, but
it would be best to at least either watch both anime adaptations of Magical
Index or read the previous volumes first, so that one could get the full
enjoyment of this book.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider either supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a> or buy the reviewed
title from <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-14-light-novel-Kazuma-Kamachi-Kiyotaka-Haimura/9780316442701/?a_id=brycec">Book
Depository</a>, who offers free shipping countries around, so that I can
continue following this series and possibly find more worthwhile reads for you
guys.</p>
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index14.jpg" width="209" height="314" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 14 cover">
<p>I hope you all have been having a good week, even if it has
been spent dealing with the monotony of the daily grind.</p>
<p>Aside from things getting thrown off schedule, such as the
constant rescheduling of the final volumes of <cite>Boku Dake ga Inai Machi</cite>,
things have been going fairly well and I can still do. The things I enjoy doing.</p>
<p>Recently, the first of the final two titles I was expecting
to get this month arrived, and it is time to get the book out of the way,
before things get out of hand.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing that title, which is called <a href="http://amzn.com/B077MC4DKR" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume 14</a>
by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over again.</p>
<p>After the events surrounding the Vento&#39;s invasion came to a
close, things seem to have finally become peaceful, as the residents can
continue going about their day.</p>
<p>However, the rest of the world has started to uprisings and
people are turning against Academy City, and while this does not seem like
something with a simple solution, a member of the Board of Directors goes to
make contact with Touma, wanting things to be resolved without the blood shed
that would otherwise take place.</p>
<p>While I have made it pretty clear that I am not particularly
fond of this series, though not enough to consider worse than Accelerator&#39;s own
manga, things have been a bit more interesting in these novels, but I know very
well that it would not remain that.</p>
<p>And after reading this, I must say that I kind of liked this
book.</p>
<p>From the moment that I opened and started reading this book,
I found myself so engrossed in it that I did not want to stopping reading for
any reason.</p>
<p>Back when I first started reading this, I had a really hard
time getting invested in what was going, because the flow of Kazuma Kamachi&#39;s
writing did not pull me in and many the events I found my annoyed with in the
anime adaptations from J.C Staff came off as dull here, except for volumes <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-3.html">3</a>,
which was the best version of Index&#39;s Sisters arc, and <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-4.html">4</a>.</p>
<p>However, ever since the events of the last of the only two
or so good arcs from <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html">Index
2</a> were covered finished up in the recent releases from Yen Press, things
have started to become quite a bit interesting, as the writing has greatly
improved to the point where I did not find myself bored out of my mind, like I
did back in the first two volumes.</p>
<p>One of the most important things that a great work needs to
have is the ability to draw people in, and while there are many ways to do this
in writing, depending on the genre, the thing that really helps draw in the
audience is if the words found in the pages of the book flow so well together
that the reader cannot help but to drawn into the world, regardless of what was
happening, and Kazuma Kamachi was able to finally bring this to the table in
his work.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had not been able to deliver in this capacity, I
would have been mad enough to stop following this series, even if it sometimes
explains things that do not make sense <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>,
because that would mean that I wasted my time on something that is supposed to
be <strong>the</strong> superior series, instead of a spin off that is superior, yet should
not have been needed.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Kazuma Kamachi delivered something decent for
once, and that makes me feel like giving him a bit more applause, especially
since this content actually new to me, unlike the previous 13 volumes.</p>
<p>I also liked how I did not really feel lost too much while
reading this book.</p>
<p>Back when I first delved into this series, which was after
FUNimation made the first anime on iTunes, I had troubles getting into things
because I saw that Touma was trying to help Mikoto Misaka near the beginning
and she attacks for what he did, but I had no idea of why or why he was scared
her.</p>
<p>Even though his fear towards Misaka did make a bit more
sense in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-1.html">first
book</a>, I still kind of felt lost about the whole thing because there seemed
to be something missing and it was only resolved in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun-volume-1.html">first
volume</a> of Railgun&#39;s manga, which kind of ruined my enjoyment of that
volume, along how tedious things felt.</p>
<p>Seeing how this book takes place after the final events
shown the second Magical Index anime, I was kind of worried that I would be
facing the same problem, as Yen Press decided to not published the side story
that took place before this, which the afterword eludes had been published
before this volume, because Kazuma Kamachi does not have that strong of a
record in my book.</p>
<p>Surprisingly though, I did not feel like I was missing
anything while I read this book.</p>
<p>This is what I really wanted to see from the series that is
considered the parent series of the Raildex universe when I first started
reading the novels, and Kazuma was finally able to deliver.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had written this in a way that I absolutely needed
to read the side story that Yen Press decided to ignore, like how I needed to
read the Railgun manga to fully understand the events in the first Index novel,
I would have been very angry at Kazuma for doing something that no reader
should have to deal with, as well as Yen Press for deciding to only release the
mainline novels, whereas they published pretty much every installment of <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/series-review-spice-wolf.html" class="italic">Spice
&#38; Wolf</a>.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that did not happen, so I can give Kazuma
Kamachi another good round applause for a job well done.</p>
<p>Hopefully, he can keep this up in future installments,
because the series finally seems to be on the right trek to becoming great,
though I am not too if it will be able to upset my current ranking of the
Raildex universe series.</p>
<p>Another thing that I kind of liked about this book was how I
was able to get a few actual laughs of it.</p>
<p>While the humor found in this book was not that unique, when
compared to the rest of the series, or even anime and manga general, things
were at least executed well enough that they seemed to be genuinely funny.</p>
<p>One of the things that I kind of do not like about <cite>A
Certain Magical Index</cite> is how the comedic moments just scream that they are
too much like slapstick and come off as something that the audience has seem
numerous times, while only being able generate a bit of a chuckle at best.</p>
<p>Now, some of you guys might be surprised to hear this, since
I do not usually knock down the comedic moments too much, as I do generally let
things like the slapstick found in anime off the hook, but the humor is part of
what gives a series its charm, unlike the awkward moments in American sitcoms
that need laugh tracks to seem funny, and if there is no humor, things tend to
feel a little lifeless.</p>
<p>In this book, Kazuma Kamachi might still be relying on the
same old tricks, but things like the baseball incident towards the beginning
and Misaka becoming mad at Touma because he has her mother&#39;s number ended up
being just as funny as Kuroko Shirai is in the Railgun manga.</p>
<p>If the humor were not as good as it was here, I would have
been very angry, as this series is finally starting to stand out more than just
when certain events take place, and I would rather sing a work&#39;s praises than
wish it shot in the sun or coming off so badly that the creators should not
come out without scratch.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the humor ended up being funny, and helped to
make it easier for me to enjoy reading this book.</p>
<p>There were two things that I liked the most though.</p>
<p>First, the Interludes did not feel like they were unneeded
to the point where there were too many.</p>
<p>Back in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-12.html">12<sup>th</sup>
book</a>, which started off the last of the only two arcs I enjoyed in the
second anime adaptation, I was annoyed with how many of the interludes felt
out-of-place and prevented flow of the book from having a nice, consistent flow
and contributed to why I considered it to be such a terrible book, in spite of
the fact that start of an arc that I was interested in.</p>
<p>Here, however, the interludes actually felt like they
belonged and made me want to continue reading this book, as I was led to
believe that there was quite a bit going on and this was the start of something
much bigger.</p>
<p>Readers, regardless of the kind of work that they are
interested in, want and need reasons to continue reading a book, because that
helps them become invested in a work, and Kazuma Kamachi delivered that in this
volume.</p>
<p>If the interludes felt as pointless as they were back in the
12<sup>th</sup> book, I would have been even more disappointed in Kazuma and
started shaking my head, while wondering why people want a third season of the
Index anime so badly, because it would have made all of Kazuma Kamachi&#39;s
improvements so far look like nothing more than a joke.</p>
<p>Luckily, that did not happen, which makes me want to give
Kazuma another good round of applause.</p>
<p>The second thing that really caught my attention was that
Touma&#39;s Imagine Breaker was revealed to not be all that powerful.</p>
<p>Other than the poor writing, which has plagued quite a few
works in this series already, the thing that I really hated about this series
was how Touma Kamijou practically won every fight through dumb luck and the use
of his all-mighty Imagine Breaker, though I was already aware that it had some
weaknesses, which made things feel less believable, especially to somebody like
me, who has only one good arm to fight with.</p>
<p>Because of this, I viewed Index to be lesser series, as
Touma does not seem to be able to strategize as well as Misaka and the fights
proved to be rather uninteresting.</p>
<p>However, now that it is revealed that Imagine Breaker is not
as powerful as I was led to believe, and that it is seemingly incomplete, I am
actually interested in continuing on with this series, because Kazuma Kamachi
seemed to realize that Touma needed to have some challenge other than having to
fight Accelerator while already heavily injured and has also decided to explore
Imagine Breaker.</p>
<p>If Imagine Breaker were left as it was, I would have dropped
this series sooner or later, because the fights would eventually become just as
dull as they are in the anime and there would be things about Touma that would
be left unanswered.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that did not occur here, and I feel like giving
Kazuma bit more applause.</p>
<p>Hopefully, Imagine Breaker continues to explored throughout
the rest this series, because I do need to have some other reason to continue
following this than just making sure I get explanations for things I see in
Railgun, but seeing as Kazuma Kamachi is human and has failed to impress quite
a few times, I would not be surprised if things go down the drain after this.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
that I particularly liked, at least that stood out as much as what I already
talked about.</p>
<p>Because my interest was captured quickly and held right up
to the end, by having a writing style that actually pulled me in, I did not
feel like I needed to read the preceding side story novel or watch the final
episodes of the second anime adaptation, there were things to laugh about,
Imagine Breaker&#39;s status as a hack was removed, and the Interludes actually
made me more interested in reading the book, this book was a pretty decent
read.</p>
<p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as typos, only one thing really bothered me.</p>
<p>There were quite a few punctuation errors.</p>
<p>Now, some of you guys might be laughing this off, seeing as
my writing is not exactly perfect, and thinking that I should not be one to
talk, but this is still something that needs to be discussed.</p>
<p>One of the reasons great books flow well from beginning to
end is that there are few, if any, moments where the wrong punctuation is used,
which makes it easy for readers to immerse themselves.</p>
<p>However, when punctuation is not placed correctly, things do
not seem to flow as smoothly as they would have, and can make it so that a
reader cannot become immersed too well, and there were quite a few instances of
that occurring in this book.</p>
<p>As much as I want to blame this on Kazuma Kamachi and his
editors over in Japan though, the real blame belongs with Yen Press because
they commissioned the translation found this book and it seems like there was
no proofreading done at all prior to the publication of this, though it was
mainly relegated to comma usage.</p>
<p>While it was not exactly hard for me read through this,
there are people are not as used to reading through things like them, and if
Yen Press actually took the time to proofread the translation more than once,
this book would have been so much better and might have been considered to be
one of the best books that they released.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Yen Press was more concerned about getting
this out on time, and made me wonder if I was really reading things correctly.</p>
<p>Hopefully, things like this do not happen again any time,
because readers want to see that everyone involved in producing did their job
well, and really showed they put effort into it.</p>
<p>Thankfully, that was the only thing that really bothered me,
so I can end things here, instead of having to rip into the book any further.</p>
<p>While there was only one issue, it was not bad enough to
hurt the quality of the book too badly, though it did make it seem like Yen
Press did not proofread things too carefully.</p>
<p>Considering that there was quite a bit to like and the only
problem was not something that really caused damage, this was definitely worth
reading.</p>
<p>I mainly recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical
Index</cite>, as they will will be able to enjoy this the most.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, this might be worth giving a try, but
it would be best to at least either watch both anime adaptations of Magical
Index or read the previous volumes first, so that one could get the full
enjoyment of this book.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider either supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a> or buy the reviewed
title from <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-14-light-novel-Kazuma-Kamachi-Kiyotaka-Haimura/9780316442701/?a_id=brycec">Book
Depository</a>, who offers free shipping countries around, so that I can
continue following this series and possibly find more worthwhile reads for you
guys.</p>
Book Review: A Certain Magical Index Volume 132017-11-16T00:00:00-08:002017-11-16T00:00:00-08:00Bryce Campbelltag:blog.brycecampbell.me,2017-11-16:book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-13.html
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index13.jpg" width="406" height="609" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 13 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone is having a good week, and are getting
plans for the weekend finalized.</p>
<p>Things have been going fairly well here, with only a few
annoyances, and I can still do what I want to do.</p>
<p>Recently, I got a couple more books, one of which was an
early gift, and I have covered one of them already.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing the other title I got, which is
called <a href="http://amzn.com/B07169D916" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume
13</a> by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over it again.</p>
<p>After meeting the person who helped Accelerator develop his
abilities, Accelerator and Last Order are once again separated and Accelerator
is determined to go after the people who started this trouble, even if it means
going against the only other person who can pose a threat to him.</p>
<p>However, even if Accelerator can deal with his new threat,
Academy City is still being threatened by an intruder and things get dire for
Touma and friends, as a run in with Last Order, who Accelerator is looking for,
entangles them in a mess that might escalate hostilities between the worlds of
science and magic.</p>
<p>I kind of liked this book.</p>
<p>From the moment that I opened up this book and started
reading it, I did not want to put it down for any reason, though I do have to
satisfy the same needs as every other human out there.</p>
<p>While this might seem a little surprising, seeing as I keep
making it clear that I not particularly fond of <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>,
seeing as I only follow because of those rare occurrences where things go
unexplained in Railgun, like how Kuroko ended in a wheel chair during the
Daihasei Festival, which was revealed back in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-8.html">8<sup>th</sup>
book</a>, each installment of the series has been getting better in this area.</p>
<p>Back when I first tired the novels, I had troubles getting
into it because Kazamuza Kamachi could not grab my attention by not making
things interesting, and even playing things in a manner that had practically
been done to death, resulting in my experience feeling like chore, and
worsening my impression of the series that I had developed because of the
terrible adaptations staff at J.C. Staff delivered.</p>
<p>However, after a while, even the Magical Index arcs that I
hated, such as the Index arc, started to look better by doing things right to
capture my attention, and that was no different here, though I still cannot say
that it was not because of the fact that this is one of the few arcs I enjoyed
before trying the novels out.</p>
<p>If I had to say why it captured my attention so quickly,
other than the aforementioned fact that this was one of my favorite arcs in the
<a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html">second
anime</a>, it would have to because it gave both a very brief rundown of what
happened in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-12.html">previous
book</a> and picked up where had left off.</p>
<p>With how much time passes betweeen releases of this series,
the brief rundown helped to refresh my mind on what had happened before, and
easily get right back into the story.</p>
<p>If this little refresher was not, just like how the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-10.html">tenth
book</a> just jump right into things, I would have been a little upset because
Yen Press is releasing these volumes one at a time, unlike <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-boku-dake-ga-inai-machi.html" class="italic">Boku
Dake ga Inai Machi</a>, which is being released two volumes at a time, as
that would mean that this book could only be fully enjoyed if the events of the
previous installment were fresh in one&#39;s mind.</p>
<p>Readers might be willing to wait for the next installment of
their favorite series, but even they have a certain limit to how long they can
maintain their interest, and if there is too big of a time, the excitement is
gone, which is why I absolutely hate two-part stories in prose fiction.</p>
<p>However, because Kazuma had started off the book in this
way, it not only made it easy to continue on with the events of the Academy
City invasion arc, without the side effect of my interest waning.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this becomes the new norm for multi-part
installments of this series, as that would make it more worthwhile for me to
continue reading each volume as it gets released, especially now that I am
exiting Index II territory and heading into what might remain light novel
exclusive for a bit longer, unless there is news of season3 beyond current
speculation and rumors.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, because Kazuma Kamachi is not quite as good
as Isuna Hasekura was when he wrote <cite>Spice &amp; Wolf</cite>, I suspect that I
will have to put this series on hold again so that I could get a full arc and
have the best enjoyment of it.</p>
<p>I also liked how this felt like I was watching a movie,
instead of reading a book.</p>
<p>While this particular arc that is covered in this book was
one of the better ones in the anime, I could not really immerse myself in it
because things shift between characters constantly, which does happen in this
book too, and my interest in what was going was only present when certain
characters were around, mostly Accelerator and Misaka, and that really took the
quality of the arc down a bit, since Accelerator&#39;s fight and Last Order&#39;s
antics were the only things that made it worth watching.</p>
<p>However, in this book, even though things do shift around a
lot, I never felt like things suddenly became dull just because a particular
character was not shown, and I could see things moving along like a
professionally edited movie, even though this is a textual work of fiction.</p>
<p>Yes, there are limits to what can be done in any medium that
provides entertainment or can present a story, which is why the original work
is <strong>usually</strong> better than adaptations, but I think the reason why my level
interest in this arc is a bit different than it was when I saw Index II is
because Touma and many of the other characters in the Raildex universe seem to
be more interesting in the novels and the fights are not bore fests, whereas
the only decent fights, which do not end consistently through sheer luck or, in
the case of the Sisters arc from the Index anime, seem unrealistic crop up only
when Accelerator or the Railgun cast on the scene.</p>
<p>This is what I wish I got from the Index series when I first
introduced to it and Kazuma Kamachi was finally able deliver that in this
volume.</p>
<p>If things were more like what J.C. Staff delivered in the
anime, I would have been very disappointed, as that would have given me more
reason to view the Index portion of the Raildex universe as an afterthought,
though it is the parent series, and I would begin to focus on only <cite>A Certain
Scientific Railgun</cite>.</p>
<p>However, because that did not happen, it makes me much more
interested in what will come next, and that makes me feel like giving Kazuma
Kamachi a good round of applause.</p>
<p>If he can keep this up, <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite> would
start to look like a pretty decent series that deserves some respect, as
opposed to being one worse entries in the franchise&#39;s universe, the other being
<cite>A Certain Scientific Accelerator</cite>, and I am a little confident that
Kazuma can pull it off, though the rough start of this series would still make
it look second best to people like me, who view Railgun to be the superior
series.</p>
<p>The thing that I liked the most though was how this book
ended.</p>
<p>One of the things that I really hated about <cite>A Certain
Magical Index</cite>, which exists in both these books and the anime, is that the
arcs are not really connected together into what could be thought of as a plot or
storyline.</p>
<p>Instead, each arc was presented as individual story in which
Accelerator or Touma, depending on who Kazuma wants to be star, gets mixed up
in something and they have to take care of it, much like the works found in the
detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres, whereas Railgun&#39;s arcs seem to
have a connection with one another, at least in the manga, and that makes this
series feel like an Adventures of Touma and Friends series, rather than a work
that should be given the pedestal that <abbr title="Dragon Ball Z">DBZ</abbr> used to have,
before people realized how bad it was.</p>
<p>Yes, Railgun is not perfect in this aspect, especially
because of how the manga is progressing now, but it helped to make Academy City
seem much more mysterious and gave me reason to continue following the series,
and that was what <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite> lacked, because it tried to
focus on both Academy City and its darkness and the world of magic.</p>
<p>Fortunately, that little problem changed a bit with this
book.</p>
<p>After Touma beat Vento and gave his little speech, which
seemed to have more feeling behind it than any of the speeches gave in the
Index anime adaptations, he tries thinking about what could be done to help
Kazakiri, a man who calls himself Acqua of the Back suddenly appears and takes
Vento, with some protests from Touma, leaving Touma with souvenir.</p>
<p>Later, Acqua talks to an ally and the conversation leads
into talk of bringing down Academy City, and Accelerator talks to a mysterious
individual about something big happening, as they want to prevent the fall of
Academy City, moments after Acqua acknowledged Touma an enemy that he would
have to fight.</p>
<p>The end of the second season of the anime may have done a
good job of brininging out this feeling, which did get me excited for another
possible season, in spite of my extreme dislike of the series, but the way it
was presented here was on whole different level, because I had nothing but
questions that I want answer right now, even though the next volume will not
come out until February, according to the <a href="http://amzn.com/0316442704">product
page</a> on Amazon, though I am not sure if Yen Press will publish the
preceding side story here.</p>
<p>This is the kind of hook that I have been waiting for that
would make me want to check out more of the series and Kazuma Kamachi finally
delivered.</p>
<p>If Kazuma Kamachi had kept things going like usual, with
Touma and Accelerator&#39;s random troubles that crop up as frequently as body is
found wherever a fictional detective goes, I would have been done with this
series, as the cast is not interesting enough to see what happens next as the
smaller Railgun cast, though I would probably be badgered again by people who
are only familiar with what makes Kuroko Shirai so annoying and what Saten
seems to do a lot on screen in the anime.</p>
<p>However, because things have changed up dramatically now, I
feel like giving Kazuma a bit of applause for giving me more of a reason to continue
following this series than just to make sure that there are not any gaps in the
Railgun timeline, and does not make it seem like people like me are wasting
their time.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
that I particularly liked, at least that could stand out as much as what I
talked about.</p>
<p>Because my attention was captured quickly and held right to
the end, because of a refresher and things did not become dull just because the
good characters were not around, and there is finally a sign of something
bigger to come, this was definitely worth reading.</p>
<p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as minor typos, and one thing that I thought I noticed, but cannot seem to
find now, nothing seemed to bother me too much.</p>
<p>As a result, I will have to say that there is nothing worth
mentioning.</p>
<p>Considering that there was quite a bit to like, and not too
much to hate, this was definitely worth reading.</p>
<p>I mainly recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical
Index</cite>, as they will be able to like this the most.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, this might be worth giving a try, as
it seems like Magical Index has finally started to look like a good series, but
it would probably best to read the other volumes first, in order to be able to
really enjoy this.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>
or either <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-13-Kazuma-Kamachi-Kiyotaka-Haimura/9780316442671/?a_aid=brycec">buy
the reviewed title</a> or, if you are anxious to find out what happens next,
sans the side story volumes, <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-14-light-novel-Kazuma-Kamachi-Kiyotaka-Haimura/9780316442701/?a_aid=brycec">preorder
the next book</a> from Book Depository, who offers free shipping to many
countries around the world, so that I can continue following this series and
probably find more worthwhile reads for you guys.</p>
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index13.jpg" width="406" height="609" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 13 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone is having a good week, and are getting
plans for the weekend finalized.</p>
<p>Things have been going fairly well here, with only a few
annoyances, and I can still do what I want to do.</p>
<p>Recently, I got a couple more books, one of which was an
early gift, and I have covered one of them already.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing the other title I got, which is
called <a href="http://amzn.com/B07169D916" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume
13</a> by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over it again.</p>
<p>After meeting the person who helped Accelerator develop his
abilities, Accelerator and Last Order are once again separated and Accelerator
is determined to go after the people who started this trouble, even if it means
going against the only other person who can pose a threat to him.</p>
<p>However, even if Accelerator can deal with his new threat,
Academy City is still being threatened by an intruder and things get dire for
Touma and friends, as a run in with Last Order, who Accelerator is looking for,
entangles them in a mess that might escalate hostilities between the worlds of
science and magic.</p>
<p>I kind of liked this book.</p>
<p>From the moment that I opened up this book and started
reading it, I did not want to put it down for any reason, though I do have to
satisfy the same needs as every other human out there.</p>
<p>While this might seem a little surprising, seeing as I keep
making it clear that I not particularly fond of <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>,
seeing as I only follow because of those rare occurrences where things go
unexplained in Railgun, like how Kuroko ended in a wheel chair during the
Daihasei Festival, which was revealed back in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-8.html">8<sup>th</sup>
book</a>, each installment of the series has been getting better in this area.</p>
<p>Back when I first tired the novels, I had troubles getting
into it because Kazamuza Kamachi could not grab my attention by not making
things interesting, and even playing things in a manner that had practically
been done to death, resulting in my experience feeling like chore, and
worsening my impression of the series that I had developed because of the
terrible adaptations staff at J.C. Staff delivered.</p>
<p>However, after a while, even the Magical Index arcs that I
hated, such as the Index arc, started to look better by doing things right to
capture my attention, and that was no different here, though I still cannot say
that it was not because of the fact that this is one of the few arcs I enjoyed
before trying the novels out.</p>
<p>If I had to say why it captured my attention so quickly,
other than the aforementioned fact that this was one of my favorite arcs in the
<a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html">second
anime</a>, it would have to because it gave both a very brief rundown of what
happened in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-12.html">previous
book</a> and picked up where had left off.</p>
<p>With how much time passes betweeen releases of this series,
the brief rundown helped to refresh my mind on what had happened before, and
easily get right back into the story.</p>
<p>If this little refresher was not, just like how the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-10.html">tenth
book</a> just jump right into things, I would have been a little upset because
Yen Press is releasing these volumes one at a time, unlike <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-boku-dake-ga-inai-machi.html" class="italic">Boku
Dake ga Inai Machi</a>, which is being released two volumes at a time, as
that would mean that this book could only be fully enjoyed if the events of the
previous installment were fresh in one&#39;s mind.</p>
<p>Readers might be willing to wait for the next installment of
their favorite series, but even they have a certain limit to how long they can
maintain their interest, and if there is too big of a time, the excitement is
gone, which is why I absolutely hate two-part stories in prose fiction.</p>
<p>However, because Kazuma had started off the book in this
way, it not only made it easy to continue on with the events of the Academy
City invasion arc, without the side effect of my interest waning.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this becomes the new norm for multi-part
installments of this series, as that would make it more worthwhile for me to
continue reading each volume as it gets released, especially now that I am
exiting Index II territory and heading into what might remain light novel
exclusive for a bit longer, unless there is news of season3 beyond current
speculation and rumors.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, because Kazuma Kamachi is not quite as good
as Isuna Hasekura was when he wrote <cite>Spice &amp; Wolf</cite>, I suspect that I
will have to put this series on hold again so that I could get a full arc and
have the best enjoyment of it.</p>
<p>I also liked how this felt like I was watching a movie,
instead of reading a book.</p>
<p>While this particular arc that is covered in this book was
one of the better ones in the anime, I could not really immerse myself in it
because things shift between characters constantly, which does happen in this
book too, and my interest in what was going was only present when certain
characters were around, mostly Accelerator and Misaka, and that really took the
quality of the arc down a bit, since Accelerator&#39;s fight and Last Order&#39;s
antics were the only things that made it worth watching.</p>
<p>However, in this book, even though things do shift around a
lot, I never felt like things suddenly became dull just because a particular
character was not shown, and I could see things moving along like a
professionally edited movie, even though this is a textual work of fiction.</p>
<p>Yes, there are limits to what can be done in any medium that
provides entertainment or can present a story, which is why the original work
is <strong>usually</strong> better than adaptations, but I think the reason why my level
interest in this arc is a bit different than it was when I saw Index II is
because Touma and many of the other characters in the Raildex universe seem to
be more interesting in the novels and the fights are not bore fests, whereas
the only decent fights, which do not end consistently through sheer luck or, in
the case of the Sisters arc from the Index anime, seem unrealistic crop up only
when Accelerator or the Railgun cast on the scene.</p>
<p>This is what I wish I got from the Index series when I first
introduced to it and Kazuma Kamachi was finally able deliver that in this
volume.</p>
<p>If things were more like what J.C. Staff delivered in the
anime, I would have been very disappointed, as that would have given me more
reason to view the Index portion of the Raildex universe as an afterthought,
though it is the parent series, and I would begin to focus on only <cite>A Certain
Scientific Railgun</cite>.</p>
<p>However, because that did not happen, it makes me much more
interested in what will come next, and that makes me feel like giving Kazuma
Kamachi a good round of applause.</p>
<p>If he can keep this up, <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite> would
start to look like a pretty decent series that deserves some respect, as
opposed to being one worse entries in the franchise&#39;s universe, the other being
<cite>A Certain Scientific Accelerator</cite>, and I am a little confident that
Kazuma can pull it off, though the rough start of this series would still make
it look second best to people like me, who view Railgun to be the superior
series.</p>
<p>The thing that I liked the most though was how this book
ended.</p>
<p>One of the things that I really hated about <cite>A Certain
Magical Index</cite>, which exists in both these books and the anime, is that the
arcs are not really connected together into what could be thought of as a plot or
storyline.</p>
<p>Instead, each arc was presented as individual story in which
Accelerator or Touma, depending on who Kazuma wants to be star, gets mixed up
in something and they have to take care of it, much like the works found in the
detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres, whereas Railgun&#39;s arcs seem to
have a connection with one another, at least in the manga, and that makes this
series feel like an Adventures of Touma and Friends series, rather than a work
that should be given the pedestal that <abbr title="Dragon Ball Z">DBZ</abbr> used to have,
before people realized how bad it was.</p>
<p>Yes, Railgun is not perfect in this aspect, especially
because of how the manga is progressing now, but it helped to make Academy City
seem much more mysterious and gave me reason to continue following the series,
and that was what <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite> lacked, because it tried to
focus on both Academy City and its darkness and the world of magic.</p>
<p>Fortunately, that little problem changed a bit with this
book.</p>
<p>After Touma beat Vento and gave his little speech, which
seemed to have more feeling behind it than any of the speeches gave in the
Index anime adaptations, he tries thinking about what could be done to help
Kazakiri, a man who calls himself Acqua of the Back suddenly appears and takes
Vento, with some protests from Touma, leaving Touma with souvenir.</p>
<p>Later, Acqua talks to an ally and the conversation leads
into talk of bringing down Academy City, and Accelerator talks to a mysterious
individual about something big happening, as they want to prevent the fall of
Academy City, moments after Acqua acknowledged Touma an enemy that he would
have to fight.</p>
<p>The end of the second season of the anime may have done a
good job of brininging out this feeling, which did get me excited for another
possible season, in spite of my extreme dislike of the series, but the way it
was presented here was on whole different level, because I had nothing but
questions that I want answer right now, even though the next volume will not
come out until February, according to the <a href="http://amzn.com/0316442704">product
page</a> on Amazon, though I am not sure if Yen Press will publish the
preceding side story here.</p>
<p>This is the kind of hook that I have been waiting for that
would make me want to check out more of the series and Kazuma Kamachi finally
delivered.</p>
<p>If Kazuma Kamachi had kept things going like usual, with
Touma and Accelerator&#39;s random troubles that crop up as frequently as body is
found wherever a fictional detective goes, I would have been done with this
series, as the cast is not interesting enough to see what happens next as the
smaller Railgun cast, though I would probably be badgered again by people who
are only familiar with what makes Kuroko Shirai so annoying and what Saten
seems to do a lot on screen in the anime.</p>
<p>However, because things have changed up dramatically now, I
feel like giving Kazuma a bit of applause for giving me more of a reason to continue
following this series than just to make sure that there are not any gaps in the
Railgun timeline, and does not make it seem like people like me are wasting
their time.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
that I particularly liked, at least that could stand out as much as what I
talked about.</p>
<p>Because my attention was captured quickly and held right to
the end, because of a refresher and things did not become dull just because the
good characters were not around, and there is finally a sign of something
bigger to come, this was definitely worth reading.</p>
<p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as minor typos, and one thing that I thought I noticed, but cannot seem to
find now, nothing seemed to bother me too much.</p>
<p>As a result, I will have to say that there is nothing worth
mentioning.</p>
<p>Considering that there was quite a bit to like, and not too
much to hate, this was definitely worth reading.</p>
<p>I mainly recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical
Index</cite>, as they will be able to like this the most.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, this might be worth giving a try, as
it seems like Magical Index has finally started to look like a good series, but
it would probably best to read the other volumes first, in order to be able to
really enjoy this.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>
or either <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-13-Kazuma-Kamachi-Kiyotaka-Haimura/9780316442671/?a_aid=brycec">buy
the reviewed title</a> or, if you are anxious to find out what happens next,
sans the side story volumes, <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-14-light-novel-Kazuma-Kamachi-Kiyotaka-Haimura/9780316442701/?a_aid=brycec">preorder
the next book</a> from Book Depository, who offers free shipping to many
countries around the world, so that I can continue following this series and
probably find more worthwhile reads for you guys.</p>
Book Review: A Certain Magical Index Volume 122017-08-23T00:00:00-07:002017-08-23T00:00:00-07:00Bryce Campbelltag:blog.brycecampbell.me,2017-08-23:book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-12.html
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index12.jpg" width="637" height="956" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 12 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone is doing well, and getting plans set
aside for the upcoming weekend.</p>
<p>Things have been going fairly well here, as things are not
as bothersome as they have been, and I can still do what I enjoy doing.</p>
<p>Recently, the last of the titles that I preordered for this
month from Amazon arrived, and it is that means it is time to get busy.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing that title, which is called <a href="http://amzn.to/2w3Xmz6" class="italic">A Certain Magical
Index Volume 12</a> by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over it again.</p>
<p>It is just another ordinary day in Academy City, though
students are getting a half day to get their uniforms switched out if
necessary, and everyone, except Touma and a few others, are enjoying the day of
relaxation.</p>
<p>However, after Last Order provokes one of her fellow Misaka clones,
Accelerator goes to search for her and becomes entangled in something that might
cause quite a bit of chaos when a familiar face reappears in front of him, and
another threat starts making their presence known by wreaking havoc of their
own.</p>
<p>I was rather unimpressed with this volume.</p>
<p>While many should know that I am not as big of a fan of <cite>A
Certain Magical Index</cite> as I am of Railgun, I have not hated the books as much
as I did the anime, especially now that I am getting to the end of what was
covered towards the end of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html">second
season</a>, and I was even glad that the novels did a few things right, such as
explaining Misaka and Touma&#39;s relationship better around the time that the
bridge scene in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-1.html">first
book</a> occurred, even if it still does not make as much sense as it did when
the events of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun-volume-1.html">first
volume</a> of <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>, or how Mikoto Misaka&#39;s involvement
made more sense and Touma first fight wih Accelerator was much more believeable
in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-3.html">third
book</a>.</p>
<p>However, just because many things have been done right in
the past, that does not mean that I would give the writer or creator a pass on
anything they do, even if fans of this series acknowledge that this might
actually be the first volume where this series becomes any good, since somebody
did tell me once that the first 11 books were not as good as the rest of the
series.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there were a few things that I did like about
this book, so I do not need to jump right into what I hated, which I would
prefer not to do, even though I have done it more than once now.</p>
<p>This book gave me quite few laughs.</p>
<p>Once of the best things that I enjoyed about the second of
the two adaptations that this series received was how Misaka 10032 reacted to
Last Order and took out a gun and begins to chase her around, which ended up
making it one of the best moments in the second season anime, and those events
played out this volume as well.</p>
<p>However, I found the whole thing here to be much funnier
because Misaka 10032 was not only overreacting to Last Order&#39;s childish
behaviors but she also rationalized it by saying it was appropriate judgment
based on logic and declares she has decided to revolt, whereas all the anime
did was show the initial reaction and then skip right to the point where Touma
meets Misaka 10032 in the mall.</p>
<p>Now, I am well aware that we, as human beings, are not
exactly rational creatures, and is talked about in a post that I linked to in
my review of <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-spice-wolf-volume-14.html" class="italic">Spice &#38; Wolf Volume 14</a>, and that
means that the solution to our problems is not always rational, but seeing the
irrationality in Misaka 10032&#39;s behavior and her trying to justify it really
gave me a good reason to laugh, especially with how more of the chase prior to Misaka
10032&#39;s meeting with Touma.</p>
<p>If things had played out exactly as how they had occurred in
the anime adaption, I would have been kind of disappointed, but enough to make
me absolutely hate it, as it was one of the few things that made the second
season of the anime worth watching.</p>
<p>Thankfully, a few more things were added in and it really
helped to illustrate why this moment in the series was so great.</p>
<p>Of course, the hilarious stuff did not end there, but that
still ended being the highlight of the comedic moments, as it stood out much
more than the anime did to the point where I feel like giving Kazuma Kamachi a
major amount applause.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this kind of humor will remain in the series once
the stuff from the second season of the anime concludes, because that is the
only way that my opinion of the series could change, and even give me more
reason to follow this series than just because there are some events not
explained in <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>, which are, ironically, rare
occurrences, though it is a spinoff of this series.</p>
<p>Then again, it did take a while for this series to become
even remotely interesting to me and Kazuma is only human, so things could go
downhill again after the Academy City Invasion concludes, which is what I expect
to happen but hope to be proven wrong.</p>
<p>I also liked how yet another person that could challenge
Accelerator appeared in the series.</p>
<p>Even though this volume is the original source for much of
the latter half of the second season, so those that have seen the anime already
know who I am talking about, it was still quite refreshing to see somebody
other than Touma lay the smackdown on Accelerator.</p>
<p>Throughout much of this series, regardless of whether you
focus on the anime or the novels, Accelerator has been presented as this
unstoppable monster, which does make his rampages very enjoyable, I do not
really see how Accelerator would be such a good character to follow around when
his victories are pretty much as guaranteed as Touma Kamijou&#39;s, except for when
Touma faced off against Accelerator in the third book, and I am saying this
while admitting that I am a fan of Accelerator.</p>
<p>This series is already considered to be garbage by a lot of
people, but even Accelerator had as little depth as Touma, then I do not see
how I would even find this series much more interesting when he takes the
spotlight, and losing to only one person would make him a truly uninteresting
character.</p>
<p>However, when the researcher who was around when Accelerator
discovered his power appeared on the scene, along with the rest of the Hound
Dog, things became as exciting as, if not more than, I expected them to be by
having Accelerator not only dealing with the limitations that he has had since
the events of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-5.html">fifth
book</a> but also had damage dealt to him by the said researcher.</p>
<p>The espers in Academy City supposedly have people monitoring
them, as mentioned in this volume, and that means that they should have a good
idea of how to neutralize those abilities, and, thankfully, Kazuma Kamachi
remembered this obvious fact.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had Accelerator come out of this unscathed, I
would have been much more disappointed with this book than I am because it
would have made it look like one of the researchers that dealt with Accelerator
before had not done his homework and made it that much more difficult to root
for Accelerator, as much as his fans would like to do, not to mention make
Accelerator&#39;s involvement in the Academy City Invasion arc less exciting.</p>
<p>However, because Accelerator did not seem to be as overpowered
as he usually is, I ended up being very interested what is going on enough to
the point where I wanted to go out and get the next volume right now.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for me, I must wait for it to be release, just
like everyone else, which will not happen until November, according to the <a href="http://amzn.to/2g6fBjd">product page</a> on Amazon, so I will just have
to put up with the wait to find out what Accelerator is going to do next.</p>
<p>Still, Kazuma does deserve to get some praise for doing
something right in a series that many, including myself, think is that great,
and so I will give him a good round of applause.</p>
<p>Now, if only Touma&#39;s victories stop feeling luck-based and
start feeling deserved, because that is the only way that this series can ever
become any good.</p>
<p>The thing that I liked the most though was how this volume
ended.</p>
<p>While I am still tired of the events in this series being
stretched out more than they need to be, especially because Kazuma has been
unable to make things as interesting in this series as Isuna Hasekura did in <cite>Spice
&#38; Wolf</cite>, I still expect to see some kind of ending that would get me
interested in the events to come and Kazuma deliver that quite well.</p>
<p>Now, his track record has not improved dramatically enough
for me to say that I am glad that I am following his work, but he was somehow
able to succeed in making me interested in reading the rest of the Daihasei
Festival, by explicitly eluding to the danger that is to come at the end of the
<a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-9.html">9<sup>th</sup>
book</a>, which kind of surprised me as I was not expecting Kazuma to do
something that many readers expect to see, though I do not think that I would
have liked the book if I had not gotten volumes 9 and <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-10.html">10</a>
at the same time because it seems to be a bit weak reading through it now.</p>
<p>Here, however, things ended in a much better way than they
did back in the Daihasei Festival arc.</p>
<p>Towards the end of the book, the new threat to Academy City
begins their rampage and then uses a radio lying around to contact Aleister and
tells him that she plans to eradicate the city and everything and everyone in
it, which intrigues Aleister enough to start acting himself, while mocking the
terrorist&#39;s actions.</p>
<p>This way of ending the book not only ended better because
there was obviously more to come, with Accelerator wanting to rescue Last Order
again, which helps to show that he is becoming less of monster, and another
threat out there, shows something happening on both fronts, as opposed to
explicitly saying that there is more to come by saying that there is danger out
there.</p>
<p>Readers are some of the smartest people out there, because
we have access to a lot more information out there than those who only pay
attention to television and movies and books and other written mediums can go
much more in depth than any video can, and we do not like it when we are told
something that should be obvious. We want to pick things apart and figure them
out for ourselves because we use our minds a lot, but when the writer says that
there is more to come, by explicitly reminding us of danger, instead of showing
what is going on, the work ends up feeling rather unimpressive.</p>
<p>In fact, if Kazuma had not written the book like this, and
did the same thing he did back in the 9<sup>th</sup> book, I would have been
disappointed enough to not even continue on with this series beyond the end of
arc, as Kazuma Kamachi would have ended up making this series seem to be just
as terrible as J.C. Staff&#39;s anime adaptations.</p>
<p>Thankfully, he realized that readers were not dumb people
and was able to deliver and ending that might just be impressive, whereas the last
two-part storyline ended was only impressive upon first reading, which makes me
feel like giving Kazuma a good round of applause.</p>
<p>Hopefully, things will start ending better after this part,
otherwise I will be putting this series in the same garbage can that I would
put the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-sword-art-online-volume-1.html">first
book</a> of <cite>Sword Art Online</cite> in, so that I do not need to be reminded of
how terrible this series was.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
thar I particularly liked, at least that could not be shoehorned in with what I
already talked about.</p>
<p>Because I could get some laughs, especially from scenes that
I was already familiar with, Accelerator did not come off as all-powerful, and
therefore dull, because somebody other than Touma managed to hurt him, while
putting up a decent fight, and this volume ended much better than the last book
that began a two-parter by letting the reader see that there was more going on,
this was a fairly decent read.</p>
<p>Although I liked a few things about the book, there are some
issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as typos, only two things bothered me, one of which contributes to why one
of them is an issue and brings up its own frustrations.</p>
<p>First, I just could not really get into this book until it
was more than half way through.</p>
<p>Whenever I read a book, I want to be pulled right into the
world and become engrossed enough in the work that I do not want to stop
reading for any reason, which is something that any avid reader would want to
get from a book or series, regardless of whether they just discovered it or
not.</p>
<p>However, when I read this book, I did not get that feeling
that I just had to read this book until Hound Dog took Last Order and
Accelerator got beat up by Amata Kihara.</p>
<p>Really, Kazuma? Do you think that this is great writing? My
own writing may not be perfect, as many of my readers should be able to notice
many of the typos and mistakes I make, and I notice it as well, but I do know
for sure that the most important thing is to grab the audience&#39;s attention
quickly and maintain it from beginning to end, because that makes it easier for
the readers to be able to overlook the most minor of problems.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Kazuma forgot that over the course of the
twelve volumes, and it makes him look like a joke.</p>
<p>If I had to say why this problem exists, there are two
reasons.</p>
<p>First, nothing happens for much of the book and things just
felt dull.</p>
<p>When I opened this book, I saw that I was being given a
little glimpse into the everyday lives of some characters that have appeared in
the series, and thought that I would be able to put up with it, since a great
story will not necessarily begin the main plot right away.</p>
<p>However, instead of being introduced to the real plot after
getting to know what is happening to the characters, the book just goes through
and covers at entire day without anything happening.</p>
<p>Now, even though I was fine with this kind of thing
happening in <cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite>, as it did happen quite a bit, it is
unbearable here because practically none of the characters were interesting and
Kazuma cannot seem to write about the mundane moments of life in a way that it
still ends up being interesting, which is what Isuna Hasekura was able to do
quite often.</p>
<p>Yes, I do understand that Kazuma Kamachi was trying to
create something without any conflict, so that the readers could have a break
from all of the nonstop action, but that does not mean it is a good idea.</p>
<p>In order to pull this off, not only do the mundane events of
life need to come off as interesting, but the characters need to be interesting
as well.</p>
<p>For example, in <cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite>, Lawrence and Holo
seemed to be fairly interesting characters and had some great conversations to
the point where I did not care one bit whether they did anything or not, but
what made the side stories so engaging was that Isuna was able to consistently
write things in a way that I found myself interested in what was going on.</p>
<p>Sadly, Kazuma failed to bring any of that to the table
because things just did not seem to be interesting and almost none of the
characters, including those whom I actually like, ever get fleshed out in this
series because of the huge cast.</p>
<p><cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite> and many of the other great series
that I know do not have such a large cast, and, as a result, get enough time to
be fleshed out enough to appear to be human, yet many of the series with a
large cast lack this kind of depth, with <cite>Yu Yu Hakusho</cite> and a few others
being the only possible exception, and this time to taken to flesh them out
helps to make the characters seem to be that much more interesting.</p>
<p>This is why I find <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite> to be
the superior portion of the Raildex universe, other than things being explained
better, because I actually feel like I am getting to know each of the four main
characters over the course of the series, whereas the character here feel kind
of flat.</p>
<p>At this point, people might be complaining and saying that
Magical Index at least does world building better than Railgun, but a world can
still be built up enough to be interesting without having so many characters,
as Isuna Hasekura was able demonstrate quite well in <cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite>,
with how realistic the world felt, even though there were only two characters
that consistently appeared in every installment.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had actually taken time to flesh out each of the
characters that he introduced in this series, beyond being the stereotypical
characters that many of them are, I would have been as happy to read through
these kinds of events as I would have reading the side stories of <cite>Spice
&#38; Wolf</cite>.</p>
<p>However, because he tried to write about average life in
Academy City without interesting characters or making the mundane seem
interesting, I just could not really get into the groove of things.</p>
<p>The second and biggest reason that it was hard for me to
get, and is the thing that I hated most about this book, was that there were
too many interludes.</p>
<p>An Interlude or two might be a nice thing to have in a book,
as it gives the reader a break from the monotony of the plot, but having too
many of them can both ruin the flow of the whole book and make it harder to get
into.</p>
<p>In the case of this book, it causes both of these problems
exactly.</p>
<p>When I read a book, I want to go from chapter to chapter
while a consistent enough flow is maintained so that I can keep myself
engrossed in what is going on, and is something that any avid reader would want
to see from any work of fiction.</p>
<p>Here, however, Kazuma breaks this flow up by having every
chapter has an interlude, most of which go off to somewhere else in the world
of the series.</p>
<p>By having such a constant shifting of perspectives, it makes
things too difficult for me to follow along or even get interested, which
irritates me more than being glad to see what my favorite characters are up to.</p>
<p>Readers want to be able to follow along very carefully and
the way to do that is by having a clear focus in the writing, which translates
out to limiting the perspectives, and is a reason why smaller casts are more
enjoyable than large owns, but Kazuma thinks I, and other readers, care to see
what everyone is up to, and, hopefully, get some enjoyment out of the more poorly
executed moments of humor.</p>
<p>When the volume starts up its first actual chapter, we are
following Touma around and watching his relatively dull life that Kazuma think
that we will find hilarious, then goes off to Accelerator and Last Order,
before switching over to London, where Stiyl interrupts Laura&#39;s bath and starts
up the next chapter back in Academy City with two characters from Railgun, then
back to Touma, then back to Accelerator, and so on for each of the five
chapters, with only the fifth being even remotely interesting.</p>
<p>Seriously, Kazuma! If you plan to deliver something like
this, and make the readers confused by it, I would have outright demanded that
ASCII Media Works to cancel this series and send all 20+ volumes, including the
New Testament books, of this series down to the deepest part of the Mariana
Trench where it belongs, because this is not something works well in prose.</p>
<p>Lights novels might still have illustrations, but the story
is mainly told through words and that means that the things that are expected
out of a great book are also expected from a light novel, and that means that
this constant shifting needs to go, as well as many of the interludes.</p>
<p>I do not care about Kanzaki or anybody else enough to want
to ever see them again, and I am trying to read a book. Stop getting in my, and
every other reader&#39;s, way, Kazuma, because this is what causes readers, like me,
to stop caring about anything a writer produces, which means that cannot afford
anything.</p>
<p>If the only interludes were that that were still in Academy
City, or all but the one featuring Vento of the Front, and the whole book
itself focus on characters in Academy City, it would have been much easier to
enjoy this book, and I might have ended up liking it quite a bit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Kazuma did this and ending up making one of
the problems with this book even worse, which makes me lose any respect I had
for him outside of the Railgun portion of the universe, and lessens my interest
in the next installment.</p>
<p>Thankfully, nothing else bothered me, and I can at least put
this behind me for a few months.</p>
<p>While there was not a whole lot wrong with this book, the
issues that did rear their heads, such as too many interludes and difficulties
in becoming interested in the work, caused enough damage to take this book from
okay to garbage.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that there were a few things to like, the
negatives were badly enough to make this a waste of time.</p>
<p>I recommend this only to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>,
as they would be the only ones able to put up with everything wrong with this
book, and they will be able to enjoy getting a few laughs.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, I would recommend avoiding it like the
plague, but if you really want to read this, skip all interludes, except the
fifth one, and anything that does not have either Misaka, a Misaka clone, Last
Order, or Accelerator, as everything else is utterly pointless and it will cut
out most of the stuff that was not great.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>
or, if you dare, buy either the next volume from the link provided earlier or
the reviewed title from either <a href="http://amzn.to/2w3Xmz6">Amazon</a> or <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-12-light-novel-Kazum-Kamachi-Kiyotak-Haimur/9780316360029/?a_aid=brycec">The
Book Despository</a>, so that I can finish the rest of the Academy City
Invasion arc and find some more worthwhile reads for you guys. </p>
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index12.jpg" width="637" height="956" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 12 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone is doing well, and getting plans set
aside for the upcoming weekend.</p>
<p>Things have been going fairly well here, as things are not
as bothersome as they have been, and I can still do what I enjoy doing.</p>
<p>Recently, the last of the titles that I preordered for this
month from Amazon arrived, and it is that means it is time to get busy.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing that title, which is called <a href="http://amzn.to/2w3Xmz6" class="italic">A Certain Magical
Index Volume 12</a> by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over it again.</p>
<p>It is just another ordinary day in Academy City, though
students are getting a half day to get their uniforms switched out if
necessary, and everyone, except Touma and a few others, are enjoying the day of
relaxation.</p>
<p>However, after Last Order provokes one of her fellow Misaka clones,
Accelerator goes to search for her and becomes entangled in something that might
cause quite a bit of chaos when a familiar face reappears in front of him, and
another threat starts making their presence known by wreaking havoc of their
own.</p>
<p>I was rather unimpressed with this volume.</p>
<p>While many should know that I am not as big of a fan of <cite>A
Certain Magical Index</cite> as I am of Railgun, I have not hated the books as much
as I did the anime, especially now that I am getting to the end of what was
covered towards the end of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html">second
season</a>, and I was even glad that the novels did a few things right, such as
explaining Misaka and Touma&#39;s relationship better around the time that the
bridge scene in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-1.html">first
book</a> occurred, even if it still does not make as much sense as it did when
the events of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun-volume-1.html">first
volume</a> of <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>, or how Mikoto Misaka&#39;s involvement
made more sense and Touma first fight wih Accelerator was much more believeable
in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-3.html">third
book</a>.</p>
<p>However, just because many things have been done right in
the past, that does not mean that I would give the writer or creator a pass on
anything they do, even if fans of this series acknowledge that this might
actually be the first volume where this series becomes any good, since somebody
did tell me once that the first 11 books were not as good as the rest of the
series.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there were a few things that I did like about
this book, so I do not need to jump right into what I hated, which I would
prefer not to do, even though I have done it more than once now.</p>
<p>This book gave me quite few laughs.</p>
<p>Once of the best things that I enjoyed about the second of
the two adaptations that this series received was how Misaka 10032 reacted to
Last Order and took out a gun and begins to chase her around, which ended up
making it one of the best moments in the second season anime, and those events
played out this volume as well.</p>
<p>However, I found the whole thing here to be much funnier
because Misaka 10032 was not only overreacting to Last Order&#39;s childish
behaviors but she also rationalized it by saying it was appropriate judgment
based on logic and declares she has decided to revolt, whereas all the anime
did was show the initial reaction and then skip right to the point where Touma
meets Misaka 10032 in the mall.</p>
<p>Now, I am well aware that we, as human beings, are not
exactly rational creatures, and is talked about in a post that I linked to in
my review of <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-spice-wolf-volume-14.html" class="italic">Spice &#38; Wolf Volume 14</a>, and that
means that the solution to our problems is not always rational, but seeing the
irrationality in Misaka 10032&#39;s behavior and her trying to justify it really
gave me a good reason to laugh, especially with how more of the chase prior to Misaka
10032&#39;s meeting with Touma.</p>
<p>If things had played out exactly as how they had occurred in
the anime adaption, I would have been kind of disappointed, but enough to make
me absolutely hate it, as it was one of the few things that made the second
season of the anime worth watching.</p>
<p>Thankfully, a few more things were added in and it really
helped to illustrate why this moment in the series was so great.</p>
<p>Of course, the hilarious stuff did not end there, but that
still ended being the highlight of the comedic moments, as it stood out much
more than the anime did to the point where I feel like giving Kazuma Kamachi a
major amount applause.</p>
<p>Hopefully, this kind of humor will remain in the series once
the stuff from the second season of the anime concludes, because that is the
only way that my opinion of the series could change, and even give me more
reason to follow this series than just because there are some events not
explained in <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>, which are, ironically, rare
occurrences, though it is a spinoff of this series.</p>
<p>Then again, it did take a while for this series to become
even remotely interesting to me and Kazuma is only human, so things could go
downhill again after the Academy City Invasion concludes, which is what I expect
to happen but hope to be proven wrong.</p>
<p>I also liked how yet another person that could challenge
Accelerator appeared in the series.</p>
<p>Even though this volume is the original source for much of
the latter half of the second season, so those that have seen the anime already
know who I am talking about, it was still quite refreshing to see somebody
other than Touma lay the smackdown on Accelerator.</p>
<p>Throughout much of this series, regardless of whether you
focus on the anime or the novels, Accelerator has been presented as this
unstoppable monster, which does make his rampages very enjoyable, I do not
really see how Accelerator would be such a good character to follow around when
his victories are pretty much as guaranteed as Touma Kamijou&#39;s, except for when
Touma faced off against Accelerator in the third book, and I am saying this
while admitting that I am a fan of Accelerator.</p>
<p>This series is already considered to be garbage by a lot of
people, but even Accelerator had as little depth as Touma, then I do not see
how I would even find this series much more interesting when he takes the
spotlight, and losing to only one person would make him a truly uninteresting
character.</p>
<p>However, when the researcher who was around when Accelerator
discovered his power appeared on the scene, along with the rest of the Hound
Dog, things became as exciting as, if not more than, I expected them to be by
having Accelerator not only dealing with the limitations that he has had since
the events of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-5.html">fifth
book</a> but also had damage dealt to him by the said researcher.</p>
<p>The espers in Academy City supposedly have people monitoring
them, as mentioned in this volume, and that means that they should have a good
idea of how to neutralize those abilities, and, thankfully, Kazuma Kamachi
remembered this obvious fact.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had Accelerator come out of this unscathed, I
would have been much more disappointed with this book than I am because it
would have made it look like one of the researchers that dealt with Accelerator
before had not done his homework and made it that much more difficult to root
for Accelerator, as much as his fans would like to do, not to mention make
Accelerator&#39;s involvement in the Academy City Invasion arc less exciting.</p>
<p>However, because Accelerator did not seem to be as overpowered
as he usually is, I ended up being very interested what is going on enough to
the point where I wanted to go out and get the next volume right now.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for me, I must wait for it to be release, just
like everyone else, which will not happen until November, according to the <a href="http://amzn.to/2g6fBjd">product page</a> on Amazon, so I will just have
to put up with the wait to find out what Accelerator is going to do next.</p>
<p>Still, Kazuma does deserve to get some praise for doing
something right in a series that many, including myself, think is that great,
and so I will give him a good round of applause.</p>
<p>Now, if only Touma&#39;s victories stop feeling luck-based and
start feeling deserved, because that is the only way that this series can ever
become any good.</p>
<p>The thing that I liked the most though was how this volume
ended.</p>
<p>While I am still tired of the events in this series being
stretched out more than they need to be, especially because Kazuma has been
unable to make things as interesting in this series as Isuna Hasekura did in <cite>Spice
&#38; Wolf</cite>, I still expect to see some kind of ending that would get me
interested in the events to come and Kazuma deliver that quite well.</p>
<p>Now, his track record has not improved dramatically enough
for me to say that I am glad that I am following his work, but he was somehow
able to succeed in making me interested in reading the rest of the Daihasei
Festival, by explicitly eluding to the danger that is to come at the end of the
<a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-9.html">9<sup>th</sup>
book</a>, which kind of surprised me as I was not expecting Kazuma to do
something that many readers expect to see, though I do not think that I would
have liked the book if I had not gotten volumes 9 and <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-10.html">10</a>
at the same time because it seems to be a bit weak reading through it now.</p>
<p>Here, however, things ended in a much better way than they
did back in the Daihasei Festival arc.</p>
<p>Towards the end of the book, the new threat to Academy City
begins their rampage and then uses a radio lying around to contact Aleister and
tells him that she plans to eradicate the city and everything and everyone in
it, which intrigues Aleister enough to start acting himself, while mocking the
terrorist&#39;s actions.</p>
<p>This way of ending the book not only ended better because
there was obviously more to come, with Accelerator wanting to rescue Last Order
again, which helps to show that he is becoming less of monster, and another
threat out there, shows something happening on both fronts, as opposed to
explicitly saying that there is more to come by saying that there is danger out
there.</p>
<p>Readers are some of the smartest people out there, because
we have access to a lot more information out there than those who only pay
attention to television and movies and books and other written mediums can go
much more in depth than any video can, and we do not like it when we are told
something that should be obvious. We want to pick things apart and figure them
out for ourselves because we use our minds a lot, but when the writer says that
there is more to come, by explicitly reminding us of danger, instead of showing
what is going on, the work ends up feeling rather unimpressive.</p>
<p>In fact, if Kazuma had not written the book like this, and
did the same thing he did back in the 9<sup>th</sup> book, I would have been
disappointed enough to not even continue on with this series beyond the end of
arc, as Kazuma Kamachi would have ended up making this series seem to be just
as terrible as J.C. Staff&#39;s anime adaptations.</p>
<p>Thankfully, he realized that readers were not dumb people
and was able to deliver and ending that might just be impressive, whereas the last
two-part storyline ended was only impressive upon first reading, which makes me
feel like giving Kazuma a good round of applause.</p>
<p>Hopefully, things will start ending better after this part,
otherwise I will be putting this series in the same garbage can that I would
put the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-sword-art-online-volume-1.html">first
book</a> of <cite>Sword Art Online</cite> in, so that I do not need to be reminded of
how terrible this series was.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
thar I particularly liked, at least that could not be shoehorned in with what I
already talked about.</p>
<p>Because I could get some laughs, especially from scenes that
I was already familiar with, Accelerator did not come off as all-powerful, and
therefore dull, because somebody other than Touma managed to hurt him, while
putting up a decent fight, and this volume ended much better than the last book
that began a two-parter by letting the reader see that there was more going on,
this was a fairly decent read.</p>
<p>Although I liked a few things about the book, there are some
issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as typos, only two things bothered me, one of which contributes to why one
of them is an issue and brings up its own frustrations.</p>
<p>First, I just could not really get into this book until it
was more than half way through.</p>
<p>Whenever I read a book, I want to be pulled right into the
world and become engrossed enough in the work that I do not want to stop
reading for any reason, which is something that any avid reader would want to
get from a book or series, regardless of whether they just discovered it or
not.</p>
<p>However, when I read this book, I did not get that feeling
that I just had to read this book until Hound Dog took Last Order and
Accelerator got beat up by Amata Kihara.</p>
<p>Really, Kazuma? Do you think that this is great writing? My
own writing may not be perfect, as many of my readers should be able to notice
many of the typos and mistakes I make, and I notice it as well, but I do know
for sure that the most important thing is to grab the audience&#39;s attention
quickly and maintain it from beginning to end, because that makes it easier for
the readers to be able to overlook the most minor of problems.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Kazuma forgot that over the course of the
twelve volumes, and it makes him look like a joke.</p>
<p>If I had to say why this problem exists, there are two
reasons.</p>
<p>First, nothing happens for much of the book and things just
felt dull.</p>
<p>When I opened this book, I saw that I was being given a
little glimpse into the everyday lives of some characters that have appeared in
the series, and thought that I would be able to put up with it, since a great
story will not necessarily begin the main plot right away.</p>
<p>However, instead of being introduced to the real plot after
getting to know what is happening to the characters, the book just goes through
and covers at entire day without anything happening.</p>
<p>Now, even though I was fine with this kind of thing
happening in <cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite>, as it did happen quite a bit, it is
unbearable here because practically none of the characters were interesting and
Kazuma cannot seem to write about the mundane moments of life in a way that it
still ends up being interesting, which is what Isuna Hasekura was able to do
quite often.</p>
<p>Yes, I do understand that Kazuma Kamachi was trying to
create something without any conflict, so that the readers could have a break
from all of the nonstop action, but that does not mean it is a good idea.</p>
<p>In order to pull this off, not only do the mundane events of
life need to come off as interesting, but the characters need to be interesting
as well.</p>
<p>For example, in <cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite>, Lawrence and Holo
seemed to be fairly interesting characters and had some great conversations to
the point where I did not care one bit whether they did anything or not, but
what made the side stories so engaging was that Isuna was able to consistently
write things in a way that I found myself interested in what was going on.</p>
<p>Sadly, Kazuma failed to bring any of that to the table
because things just did not seem to be interesting and almost none of the
characters, including those whom I actually like, ever get fleshed out in this
series because of the huge cast.</p>
<p><cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite> and many of the other great series
that I know do not have such a large cast, and, as a result, get enough time to
be fleshed out enough to appear to be human, yet many of the series with a
large cast lack this kind of depth, with <cite>Yu Yu Hakusho</cite> and a few others
being the only possible exception, and this time to taken to flesh them out
helps to make the characters seem to be that much more interesting.</p>
<p>This is why I find <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite> to be
the superior portion of the Raildex universe, other than things being explained
better, because I actually feel like I am getting to know each of the four main
characters over the course of the series, whereas the character here feel kind
of flat.</p>
<p>At this point, people might be complaining and saying that
Magical Index at least does world building better than Railgun, but a world can
still be built up enough to be interesting without having so many characters,
as Isuna Hasekura was able demonstrate quite well in <cite>Spice &#38; Wolf</cite>,
with how realistic the world felt, even though there were only two characters
that consistently appeared in every installment.</p>
<p>If Kazuma had actually taken time to flesh out each of the
characters that he introduced in this series, beyond being the stereotypical
characters that many of them are, I would have been as happy to read through
these kinds of events as I would have reading the side stories of <cite>Spice
&#38; Wolf</cite>.</p>
<p>However, because he tried to write about average life in
Academy City without interesting characters or making the mundane seem
interesting, I just could not really get into the groove of things.</p>
<p>The second and biggest reason that it was hard for me to
get, and is the thing that I hated most about this book, was that there were
too many interludes.</p>
<p>An Interlude or two might be a nice thing to have in a book,
as it gives the reader a break from the monotony of the plot, but having too
many of them can both ruin the flow of the whole book and make it harder to get
into.</p>
<p>In the case of this book, it causes both of these problems
exactly.</p>
<p>When I read a book, I want to go from chapter to chapter
while a consistent enough flow is maintained so that I can keep myself
engrossed in what is going on, and is something that any avid reader would want
to see from any work of fiction.</p>
<p>Here, however, Kazuma breaks this flow up by having every
chapter has an interlude, most of which go off to somewhere else in the world
of the series.</p>
<p>By having such a constant shifting of perspectives, it makes
things too difficult for me to follow along or even get interested, which
irritates me more than being glad to see what my favorite characters are up to.</p>
<p>Readers want to be able to follow along very carefully and
the way to do that is by having a clear focus in the writing, which translates
out to limiting the perspectives, and is a reason why smaller casts are more
enjoyable than large owns, but Kazuma thinks I, and other readers, care to see
what everyone is up to, and, hopefully, get some enjoyment out of the more poorly
executed moments of humor.</p>
<p>When the volume starts up its first actual chapter, we are
following Touma around and watching his relatively dull life that Kazuma think
that we will find hilarious, then goes off to Accelerator and Last Order,
before switching over to London, where Stiyl interrupts Laura&#39;s bath and starts
up the next chapter back in Academy City with two characters from Railgun, then
back to Touma, then back to Accelerator, and so on for each of the five
chapters, with only the fifth being even remotely interesting.</p>
<p>Seriously, Kazuma! If you plan to deliver something like
this, and make the readers confused by it, I would have outright demanded that
ASCII Media Works to cancel this series and send all 20+ volumes, including the
New Testament books, of this series down to the deepest part of the Mariana
Trench where it belongs, because this is not something works well in prose.</p>
<p>Lights novels might still have illustrations, but the story
is mainly told through words and that means that the things that are expected
out of a great book are also expected from a light novel, and that means that
this constant shifting needs to go, as well as many of the interludes.</p>
<p>I do not care about Kanzaki or anybody else enough to want
to ever see them again, and I am trying to read a book. Stop getting in my, and
every other reader&#39;s, way, Kazuma, because this is what causes readers, like me,
to stop caring about anything a writer produces, which means that cannot afford
anything.</p>
<p>If the only interludes were that that were still in Academy
City, or all but the one featuring Vento of the Front, and the whole book
itself focus on characters in Academy City, it would have been much easier to
enjoy this book, and I might have ended up liking it quite a bit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Kazuma did this and ending up making one of
the problems with this book even worse, which makes me lose any respect I had
for him outside of the Railgun portion of the universe, and lessens my interest
in the next installment.</p>
<p>Thankfully, nothing else bothered me, and I can at least put
this behind me for a few months.</p>
<p>While there was not a whole lot wrong with this book, the
issues that did rear their heads, such as too many interludes and difficulties
in becoming interested in the work, caused enough damage to take this book from
okay to garbage.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that there were a few things to like, the
negatives were badly enough to make this a waste of time.</p>
<p>I recommend this only to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>,
as they would be the only ones able to put up with everything wrong with this
book, and they will be able to enjoy getting a few laughs.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, I would recommend avoiding it like the
plague, but if you really want to read this, skip all interludes, except the
fifth one, and anything that does not have either Misaka, a Misaka clone, Last
Order, or Accelerator, as everything else is utterly pointless and it will cut
out most of the stuff that was not great.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>
or, if you dare, buy either the next volume from the link provided earlier or
the reviewed title from either <a href="http://amzn.to/2w3Xmz6">Amazon</a> or <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Certain-Magical-Index-Vol-12-light-novel-Kazum-Kamachi-Kiyotak-Haimur/9780316360029/?a_aid=brycec">The
Book Despository</a>, so that I can finish the rest of the Academy City
Invasion arc and find some more worthwhile reads for you guys. </p>
Book Review: A Certain Magical Index Volume 112017-06-09T00:00:00-07:002017-06-09T00:00:00-07:00Bryce Campbelltag:blog.brycecampbell.me,2017-06-09:book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-11.html
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index11.jpg" width="481" height="722" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 11 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone had a good week, and are making their
final preparations for the weekend.</p>
<p>Things may not exactly be perfect here, due tomy current
issues and things coming up that I wish I did not need to deal with, but I am
still glad that I can do something that I can enjoy.</p>
<p>Earlier in the month, I had gotten three books from Amazon,
in order to help me close the gap on one series and make sure that I can keep
up with another, and I have so far covered all but one of those books.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing that last remaining title, which
is called <a href="http://amzn.to/2rVexRh" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume 11</a>
by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over it again.</p>
<p>The Daihasei Festival came at a rather peaceful end, and
Touma got lucky for the first time in his life by winning some tickets to
Italy, which surprises him.</p>
<p>However, Touma&#39;s suspicions turn out to be warranted when a
series of evets start taking place that will once again have him go against the
Roman Orthodox Church, and he must do something before a lot of people lose
their lives.</p>
<p>Unlike <cite>Spice &#38;; Wolf</cite>, whose anime adaptation was
quite inferior to the books, where I was able to enjoy pretty much every
volume, except for the useless <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-spice-wolf-volume-6.html">sixth
book</a> that should have been merged with the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-spice-wolf-volume-5.html">fifth</a>,
<cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite> took quite a bit of time to be any good, and now
that I have reached one of the last things featured in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html" class="italic">A
Certain Magical Index II</a>, I was not too sure if I would be able to find
anything decent, seeing as the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-8.html">eighth
book</a> covered one of the only good arcs to be found.</p>
<p>However, after reading this book, I can say that I kind of
liked it.</p>
<p>From the moment that I opened up this book, I did not feel
like putting it down for any reason, at least towards the beginning.</p>
<p>Throughout the run of this entire series, Kazuma has done a
good job of capturing and maintaining my interest for much of the work, even
when following a character is pretty much just as bland as Touma Kamijou, as he
is not really that well fleshed out or somebody that I would want to hang out
with, and I really hoped that he would be able to match up the likes of Isuna
Hasekura, who was pretty good before he got involved with <cite>World End Economica</cite>,
in that he would finally get me like Touma and the gang, as opposed to just
Accelerator and the Railgun, and he only partially succeeded in doing that.</p>
<p>Now, I have heard that this series does not start to even
get close to the level of quality seen in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun.html">A
Certain Scientific Railgun</a> until the Academy City Invasion arc, which
starts up in the <a href="http://amzn.to/2r3BHDK">next volume</a>, according to
the <a href="http://toarumajutsunoindex.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Light_Novels_and_Other_Literary_Works">light
novel page</a> of the <a href="http://toarumajutsunoindex.wikia.com/wiki/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index_Wiki">Magical
Index Wiki</a>, and I remember somebody telling me that the first 11 volumes
were not that great, but partially being able to succeed in capturing my
interest is at least a step up for Kazuma.</p>
<p>One of the most important things needed to make a reader
interested in the work is to be able to capture the reader&#39;s attention quickly,
and this is probably the first title, since the eighth book in the series, to
be able to pull this off quite well.</p>
<p>If I was not able to become as engrossed with this book as I
much as I was, I would have found myself mire dissatisfied with it than I am.</p>
<p>However, because Kazuma was able to do something right, I am
willing to give Kazuma a bit of a passing grade.</p>
<p>Hopefully, I will get blown out of the water in the next
arc, like I was with the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-3.html">third</a>
and eighth books.</p>
<p>Then again, considering how often Kazuma Kamachi has failed
to meet my expectations or just barely met them, while Weston Kincade, Jun
Mochizuki, and Hiromu Arakawa have all done fairly well in meeting my
expectations in more than one of their works, I am also rather skeptical about
whether or not he can pull it off.</p>
<p>Still, Kazuma does deserve some praise for being able to
partially capture and hold my attention, as capturing all of a reader&#39;s
attention will not be possible if no part of their attention is captured.</p>
<p>I also liked how much of the action that was present in this
volume had me on the edge of my seat.</p>
<p>Throughout the course of this series, things have been flipping
back and forth between dull and interesting, with the first two volumes being
the biggest offenders of feeling dull, even when things happened, and the
excitement of the action-oriented parts never started being consistently good
until the eighth book, which covered the Tree Diagram Remnant arc, which is why
I still cannot consider myself a fan of the Magical Index portion of the
Raildex universe, even today.</p>
<p>In this volume, that aspect of this series still seems to be
present, though not as much as I would have liked, and it is making me think
that there will be some fights that will be just as interesting as those that
have taken place in <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>.</p>
<p>Yes, not every fight in that particular series was not as
interesting as Kuroko&#39;s fight from <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun-volume-2.html">volume
2</a> of the Railgun manga or Misaka&#39;s fight against ITEM in the Sisters arc,
but they had much more excitement in them than any of the many fights that took
place in J.C. Staff&#39;s anime adaptatons of the Magical Index series, especially
because Misaka&#39;s victories feel like she earned them, whereas Touma Kamijou&#39;s
victory come off as too lucky.</p>
<p>Here, Touma and the gang actually do seem like they are
struggling a bit to get the outcome they want and the action itself does not
feel as boring as it felt back in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-2.html">second
volume</a>.</p>
<p>If I had to say why that there is that much of a difference,
it is because Kazuma is finally becoming a more competent writer, because he
seems to understand better how to write an action scenes on par with those
found in the best action flicks that Hollywood has ever produced, and I can
finally give him a good amount of applause.</p>
<p>Readers want to become as excited to see action happen as
people how like to see action flicks, and if the action feel dull, they might
not ever check out anything else that the writer writes, just like how fans of
the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres will never support a writer
that cannot deliver what they want to see, and this is something Kazuma seem to
finally understand.</p>
<p>Now, if only Kazuma can actually maintain this level of
quality for the 11 remaining volumes, and however many volumes there are of the
new testament series, I would be able to see why so many people actually like
this series, instead of viewing it as the inferior portion of the Raildex
universe.</p>
<p>The thing that I liked the most though about this book
though is how there are already signs that the Academy City Invasion arc is
about to begin.</p>
<p>Back when I reviewed the second season of the <cite>A Certain
Magical Index</cite> anime adaptation, I clearly stated that there were only two
decent arcs present in the 24-episode run, and my dissatisfaction with the rest
has also somewhat affected my enjoyment of the novels, though it was not
completely unwarranted, and the negative aspects of this book made me wonder if
I should take another break until the Academy City Invasion arc was fully
released where I live, much like how I did not bother going over Index&#39;s
Daihasei Festival arc until it was fully released in my country.</p>
<p>However, the moment that the events in Italy concluded, and
Touma&#39;s fate and a few other things occurred, the book switches over to Vatican
City, where two people have the pope sign a document that mentions Touma
Kamijou and speaks of him being a threat to Roman Orthodox Church, and seems
like something is about to begin.</p>
<p>I might not like everything that Kazuma Kamachi does with
this series, but this has me interested enough to go out and get the next
volume right now, even though it will not be available until August, according
to the link I provided earlier, and volume 13 will not be available until
November, according to a <a href="http://amzn.to/2r4da1j">product page</a> on
Amazon, so I guess I will have to wait a while before I can see what exactly
will happen to Touma.</p>
<p>Readers want to have some hook that makes them want to come
back to the series for more, and Kazuma really delivered.</p>
<p>Yes, writers do not necessarily fail to deliver well in this
aspect when it comes to creating a series, but if this did not happen, I would
not have been as interested in seeing how the Academy City Invasion arc
originally went as I am, since being impressed by the anime version of that arc
can only make me interested to a certain extent, as well as make this series
feel more like an Adventures of Touma and Friends series than I already see it
as.</p>
<p>Because Kazuma did do this, however, I feel like giving him
a bit of applause. Nice job, Kazuma, for giving me an incentive to continue on
with this series more than the prodding of the Index fans ever could, even if
they acknowledge the problems with the series that I see.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else I
particularly liked, at least that stood out as much as what I talked about.</p>
<p>Because my interest was captured and held for most of the
book, the action is still fairly exciting, and there are already hints towards
the Academy City Invasion arc happening soon, this was a fairly decent book.</p>
<p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as typos, only one thing really bothered me.</p>
<p>The closer to end I got, the less interested I was in
finishing it.</p>
<p>While Kazuma did a fairly good job of capturing and
maintaining my interest for much of the book, as I expect from any decent
writer, he could not keep the moment going.</p>
<p>Not only do readers want to be drawn into the world of the
book quickly, but they also want to be given a reason to continue on with the
work by not having things become awfully dull.</p>
<p>After all, would anybody want to continue watching a movie
or show if it became boring before the end? I sure would not, and I doubt that
many other avid readers out there would disagree with me, if I were to rephrase
the question to talk about books.</p>
<p>This has been a major problem with this series from the very
beginning of this series, and is a big reason why I just cannot really
appreciate this series as much as Railgun.</p>
<p>If I had to say why this is a big problem, it would have to
be because the excitement of the action waned around the time Touma and the
gang confronted the big bad of this book.</p>
<p>The incident in Italy may not be the final obstacle that
Touma and his friends have to deal with, and the ending of the Index portion of
the Raildex universe might not come for an awfully long time, but final
confrontation must be interesting and full of tension, much like the
confrontation between Ryner Lute and Sion Astal in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-the-legend-of-the-legendary-heroes.html">The
Legend of the Legendary Heroes</a>, but the final confrontation here feels just
as disappointing as it was in the anime.</p>
<p>What the heck, Kazuma? You might not have been able make
things feel too exciting in this series, but Kuroko&#39;s fight with Awaki in
volume 8 and the fights against Oriana Thompson during the Daihasei Festival
arc were some of the best moment yet.</p>
<p>I was almost willing to finally place this series on the
same level Railgun, but then the excitement of the action goes down, and the
series goes to pot.</p>
<p>If <cite>Spice &#38;; Wolf</cite>, a series known for slow and not
having a whole lot going on, can be interesting, Kazuma can do it too.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Kazuma still comes off as an amateur overall,
and I highly doubt that he will be able to really be able establish himself as
being a great writer.</p>
<p>Seriously, Kazuma, if this is the best that you can do, you
really need to go back to school and refine your writing skills, because you
are coming off as more of a joke than somebody I can respect.</p>
<p>Readers want to see writers improve over the course of their
career, but Kazuma just seems to be getting bad enough to the point where I am
strongly considering changing my mind about getting the next two volumes any
time soon.</p>
<p>Fortunately, nothing else really bugged me too much, so the
book could not look any worse than it already does.</p>
<p>While there was only one thing wrong with this book, that
issue was bad enough to take the book from being kind of good to terrible.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that there were a few things to like, the
negative was bad enough to make this only good enough to kill time.</p>
<p>I mainly recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical
Index</cite>, as they would enjoy this the most.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, you can give it a try if you want,
especially since it kind of starts off the Academy City Invasion arc, but this
will not be able to show anyone how great the series can be great.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>
or buy the books in the Magical Index series via the links provided in this
reviews, so that I can continue following this series and find more worthwhile
reads for you guys, and doing whatever you do when you find something that
impresses you.</p>
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index11.jpg" width="481" height="722" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 11 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone had a good week, and are making their
final preparations for the weekend.</p>
<p>Things may not exactly be perfect here, due tomy current
issues and things coming up that I wish I did not need to deal with, but I am
still glad that I can do something that I can enjoy.</p>
<p>Earlier in the month, I had gotten three books from Amazon,
in order to help me close the gap on one series and make sure that I can keep
up with another, and I have so far covered all but one of those books.</p>
<p>Today, I will be reviewing that last remaining title, which
is called <a href="http://amzn.to/2rVexRh" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume 11</a>
by Kazuma Kamachi.</p>
<p>As I have given a series synopsis in an <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier
post</a>, I will not go over it again.</p>
<p>The Daihasei Festival came at a rather peaceful end, and
Touma got lucky for the first time in his life by winning some tickets to
Italy, which surprises him.</p>
<p>However, Touma&#39;s suspicions turn out to be warranted when a
series of evets start taking place that will once again have him go against the
Roman Orthodox Church, and he must do something before a lot of people lose
their lives.</p>
<p>Unlike <cite>Spice &#38;; Wolf</cite>, whose anime adaptation was
quite inferior to the books, where I was able to enjoy pretty much every
volume, except for the useless <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-spice-wolf-volume-6.html">sixth
book</a> that should have been merged with the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-spice-wolf-volume-5.html">fifth</a>,
<cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite> took quite a bit of time to be any good, and now
that I have reached one of the last things featured in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html" class="italic">A
Certain Magical Index II</a>, I was not too sure if I would be able to find
anything decent, seeing as the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-8.html">eighth
book</a> covered one of the only good arcs to be found.</p>
<p>However, after reading this book, I can say that I kind of
liked it.</p>
<p>From the moment that I opened up this book, I did not feel
like putting it down for any reason, at least towards the beginning.</p>
<p>Throughout the run of this entire series, Kazuma has done a
good job of capturing and maintaining my interest for much of the work, even
when following a character is pretty much just as bland as Touma Kamijou, as he
is not really that well fleshed out or somebody that I would want to hang out
with, and I really hoped that he would be able to match up the likes of Isuna
Hasekura, who was pretty good before he got involved with <cite>World End Economica</cite>,
in that he would finally get me like Touma and the gang, as opposed to just
Accelerator and the Railgun, and he only partially succeeded in doing that.</p>
<p>Now, I have heard that this series does not start to even
get close to the level of quality seen in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun.html">A
Certain Scientific Railgun</a> until the Academy City Invasion arc, which
starts up in the <a href="http://amzn.to/2r3BHDK">next volume</a>, according to
the <a href="http://toarumajutsunoindex.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Light_Novels_and_Other_Literary_Works">light
novel page</a> of the <a href="http://toarumajutsunoindex.wikia.com/wiki/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index_Wiki">Magical
Index Wiki</a>, and I remember somebody telling me that the first 11 volumes
were not that great, but partially being able to succeed in capturing my
interest is at least a step up for Kazuma.</p>
<p>One of the most important things needed to make a reader
interested in the work is to be able to capture the reader&#39;s attention quickly,
and this is probably the first title, since the eighth book in the series, to
be able to pull this off quite well.</p>
<p>If I was not able to become as engrossed with this book as I
much as I was, I would have found myself mire dissatisfied with it than I am.</p>
<p>However, because Kazuma was able to do something right, I am
willing to give Kazuma a bit of a passing grade.</p>
<p>Hopefully, I will get blown out of the water in the next
arc, like I was with the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-3.html">third</a>
and eighth books.</p>
<p>Then again, considering how often Kazuma Kamachi has failed
to meet my expectations or just barely met them, while Weston Kincade, Jun
Mochizuki, and Hiromu Arakawa have all done fairly well in meeting my
expectations in more than one of their works, I am also rather skeptical about
whether or not he can pull it off.</p>
<p>Still, Kazuma does deserve some praise for being able to
partially capture and hold my attention, as capturing all of a reader&#39;s
attention will not be possible if no part of their attention is captured.</p>
<p>I also liked how much of the action that was present in this
volume had me on the edge of my seat.</p>
<p>Throughout the course of this series, things have been flipping
back and forth between dull and interesting, with the first two volumes being
the biggest offenders of feeling dull, even when things happened, and the
excitement of the action-oriented parts never started being consistently good
until the eighth book, which covered the Tree Diagram Remnant arc, which is why
I still cannot consider myself a fan of the Magical Index portion of the
Raildex universe, even today.</p>
<p>In this volume, that aspect of this series still seems to be
present, though not as much as I would have liked, and it is making me think
that there will be some fights that will be just as interesting as those that
have taken place in <cite>A Certain Scientific Railgun</cite>.</p>
<p>Yes, not every fight in that particular series was not as
interesting as Kuroko&#39;s fight from <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun-volume-2.html">volume
2</a> of the Railgun manga or Misaka&#39;s fight against ITEM in the Sisters arc,
but they had much more excitement in them than any of the many fights that took
place in J.C. Staff&#39;s anime adaptatons of the Magical Index series, especially
because Misaka&#39;s victories feel like she earned them, whereas Touma Kamijou&#39;s
victory come off as too lucky.</p>
<p>Here, Touma and the gang actually do seem like they are
struggling a bit to get the outcome they want and the action itself does not
feel as boring as it felt back in the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-2.html">second
volume</a>.</p>
<p>If I had to say why that there is that much of a difference,
it is because Kazuma is finally becoming a more competent writer, because he
seems to understand better how to write an action scenes on par with those
found in the best action flicks that Hollywood has ever produced, and I can
finally give him a good amount of applause.</p>
<p>Readers want to become as excited to see action happen as
people how like to see action flicks, and if the action feel dull, they might
not ever check out anything else that the writer writes, just like how fans of
the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres will never support a writer
that cannot deliver what they want to see, and this is something Kazuma seem to
finally understand.</p>
<p>Now, if only Kazuma can actually maintain this level of
quality for the 11 remaining volumes, and however many volumes there are of the
new testament series, I would be able to see why so many people actually like
this series, instead of viewing it as the inferior portion of the Raildex
universe.</p>
<p>The thing that I liked the most though about this book
though is how there are already signs that the Academy City Invasion arc is
about to begin.</p>
<p>Back when I reviewed the second season of the <cite>A Certain
Magical Index</cite> anime adaptation, I clearly stated that there were only two
decent arcs present in the 24-episode run, and my dissatisfaction with the rest
has also somewhat affected my enjoyment of the novels, though it was not
completely unwarranted, and the negative aspects of this book made me wonder if
I should take another break until the Academy City Invasion arc was fully
released where I live, much like how I did not bother going over Index&#39;s
Daihasei Festival arc until it was fully released in my country.</p>
<p>However, the moment that the events in Italy concluded, and
Touma&#39;s fate and a few other things occurred, the book switches over to Vatican
City, where two people have the pope sign a document that mentions Touma
Kamijou and speaks of him being a threat to Roman Orthodox Church, and seems
like something is about to begin.</p>
<p>I might not like everything that Kazuma Kamachi does with
this series, but this has me interested enough to go out and get the next
volume right now, even though it will not be available until August, according
to the link I provided earlier, and volume 13 will not be available until
November, according to a <a href="http://amzn.to/2r4da1j">product page</a> on
Amazon, so I guess I will have to wait a while before I can see what exactly
will happen to Touma.</p>
<p>Readers want to have some hook that makes them want to come
back to the series for more, and Kazuma really delivered.</p>
<p>Yes, writers do not necessarily fail to deliver well in this
aspect when it comes to creating a series, but if this did not happen, I would
not have been as interested in seeing how the Academy City Invasion arc
originally went as I am, since being impressed by the anime version of that arc
can only make me interested to a certain extent, as well as make this series
feel more like an Adventures of Touma and Friends series than I already see it
as.</p>
<p>Because Kazuma did do this, however, I feel like giving him
a bit of applause. Nice job, Kazuma, for giving me an incentive to continue on
with this series more than the prodding of the Index fans ever could, even if
they acknowledge the problems with the series that I see.</p>
<p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else I
particularly liked, at least that stood out as much as what I talked about.</p>
<p>Because my interest was captured and held for most of the
book, the action is still fairly exciting, and there are already hints towards
the Academy City Invasion arc happening soon, this was a fairly decent book.</p>
<p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.</p>
<p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
such as typos, only one thing really bothered me.</p>
<p>The closer to end I got, the less interested I was in
finishing it.</p>
<p>While Kazuma did a fairly good job of capturing and
maintaining my interest for much of the book, as I expect from any decent
writer, he could not keep the moment going.</p>
<p>Not only do readers want to be drawn into the world of the
book quickly, but they also want to be given a reason to continue on with the
work by not having things become awfully dull.</p>
<p>After all, would anybody want to continue watching a movie
or show if it became boring before the end? I sure would not, and I doubt that
many other avid readers out there would disagree with me, if I were to rephrase
the question to talk about books.</p>
<p>This has been a major problem with this series from the very
beginning of this series, and is a big reason why I just cannot really
appreciate this series as much as Railgun.</p>
<p>If I had to say why this is a big problem, it would have to
be because the excitement of the action waned around the time Touma and the
gang confronted the big bad of this book.</p>
<p>The incident in Italy may not be the final obstacle that
Touma and his friends have to deal with, and the ending of the Index portion of
the Raildex universe might not come for an awfully long time, but final
confrontation must be interesting and full of tension, much like the
confrontation between Ryner Lute and Sion Astal in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-the-legend-of-the-legendary-heroes.html">The
Legend of the Legendary Heroes</a>, but the final confrontation here feels just
as disappointing as it was in the anime.</p>
<p>What the heck, Kazuma? You might not have been able make
things feel too exciting in this series, but Kuroko&#39;s fight with Awaki in
volume 8 and the fights against Oriana Thompson during the Daihasei Festival
arc were some of the best moment yet.</p>
<p>I was almost willing to finally place this series on the
same level Railgun, but then the excitement of the action goes down, and the
series goes to pot.</p>
<p>If <cite>Spice &#38;; Wolf</cite>, a series known for slow and not
having a whole lot going on, can be interesting, Kazuma can do it too.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Kazuma still comes off as an amateur overall,
and I highly doubt that he will be able to really be able establish himself as
being a great writer.</p>
<p>Seriously, Kazuma, if this is the best that you can do, you
really need to go back to school and refine your writing skills, because you
are coming off as more of a joke than somebody I can respect.</p>
<p>Readers want to see writers improve over the course of their
career, but Kazuma just seems to be getting bad enough to the point where I am
strongly considering changing my mind about getting the next two volumes any
time soon.</p>
<p>Fortunately, nothing else really bugged me too much, so the
book could not look any worse than it already does.</p>
<p>While there was only one thing wrong with this book, that
issue was bad enough to take the book from being kind of good to terrible.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that there were a few things to like, the
negative was bad enough to make this only good enough to kill time.</p>
<p>I mainly recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical
Index</cite>, as they would enjoy this the most.</p>
<p>As for everyone else, you can give it a try if you want,
especially since it kind of starts off the Academy City Invasion arc, but this
will not be able to show anyone how great the series can be great.</p>
<p>If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>
or buy the books in the Magical Index series via the links provided in this
reviews, so that I can continue following this series and find more worthwhile
reads for you guys, and doing whatever you do when you find something that
impresses you.</p>
Book Review: A Certain Magical Index Volume 102017-02-24T00:00:00-08:002017-02-24T00:00:00-08:00Bryce Campbelltag:blog.brycecampbell.me,2017-02-24:book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-10.html
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index10.jpg" width="472" height="708" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 10 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone is doing well and looking forward to great weekend, regardless of how you plan to spend it.
</p><p>Things have been going fairly well here, especially because the title that was giving me troubles has finally been fixed, but before I can tackle the two books that I have anxiously waiting to read, I have to tackle at least one more book from my recent Amazon order, which arrived the same day as those preordered books.
</p><p>Today, I will be reviewing that book, which is called <a href="http://amzn.com/B01LX0R08I" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume 10</a> by Kazuma Kamachi.
</p><p>As I have given a series synopsis in and <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier post</a> and this book concludes the events of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-9.html">previous book</a>, I will not be giving this book any summary.
</p><p>While Magical Index does not have that great of reputation with me, its books have been decent for me to at least desire to see what happens next, but I kept expecting it fail, thanks to the bad impression that the anime adaptations gave me.
</p><p>Fortunately, after reading this, I can say that kind of liked it.
</p><p>From the moment that I first opened up this book, I did not feel like putting it down for any reason, at least until I reached the epilogue, though I do have to satisfy the same needs as everyone, and there was also quite a bit of noise pollution.
</p><p>Yes, a lot of the books I have recently finished did not fail me in this regard, but Kazuma Kamachi has been having an awfully hard time maintaining my interest in events that happen in this side of the Raildex universe, except for the Tree Diagram Remnant and Sisters arc, the latter of which was <strong>almost</strong> as good in the novel series as Railgun's side of the story was in the Railgun manga and Railgun S anime, and that has kept me from wanting to say that this is as great as a small minority claims.
</p><p>However, in this book, Kazuma was able to hold my attention for far longer than he has been able to when his series did not revolve around either Accelerator or the Railgun cast, which makes me want to give him a thumbs up.
</p><p>Hopefully, the day will come in which my interest is not heightened in this series just because a character I like, or, in the case of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-8.html">eighth book</a>, one that comes off better when said character is making strong advances on a character I like, but that remains to be seen because Yen Press released five books in the year that they published the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-1.html">first book</a>, yet only published four books last year, since this volume just got released this month, so I am not too sure when the stuff found in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index II</a> will be fully publish and the arcs that Index fans say outshines Railgun's Sisters arc will be officially released here.
</p><p>For now, I will just give Kazuma credit for holding my interest, even though the main reason that my interest was held was because of how well the last book, which was released back in November of last year, according to <a href="http://amzn.com/B01CO4AUVS">Amazon</a>, ended.
</p><p>If it had not ended the way it did, I would have been angry at myself for picking up Magical Index again so quickly, since it would have been no better than what was found in the anime.
</p><p>I also liked how there was a lot of tension in the air.
</p><p>Even though the Magical Index anime and novels are two very different works, as confirmed by Magical Index fans and Yoshihiro Togashi in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-yu-yu-hakusho-volume-10.html" class="italic">Yu Yu Hakusho Volume 10</a>, when he talked about the anime adaptation of his own work, the one thing that Kazuma Kamachi has had troubles with is keeping things intense, and, in cases like the first two books, he sometimes fails to make things feel as intense as they should, whereas almost every fight and arc in Railgun, except for the fight that happens between Misaka, Touma, and Gunha at the end of Railgun's Daihasei Festival arc and a few others, has enough tension that has me on the end of my seat from start to finish.
</p><p>Here, however, there was almost no moment where I did not feel like I was on the edge of my seat, almost like I was reading the Sisters arc or Tree Diagram Remnant arc all over again.
</p><p>This is what I wanted to see all along in this series and Kazuma delivered.
</p><p>Seriously, if Magical Index were more like this towards the beginning, I would have been more enthusiastic about this series than I am, and there would probably be a few more fans of Index than there are of Railgun.
</p><p>Unfortunately, it took Kazuma too much time to be able to get this far with his and I will probably never be able to recommend any of these books to those that are not part of the Index fandom, unless it has relevance to the Railgun series like the Tree Diagram Remnant arc did.
</p><p>Another nice thing about this book was that there a few more times that I actually felt like laughing than I did in the last book.
</p><p>While it is more of the same things that many of the people in the Raildex community would be familiar with already, I still found myself chuckling quite a few times.
</p><p>Now, this series, like many anime and manga, rely on stuff that people would generally associate with <em>low class</em> comedy, but I have said time and again that such things can still be funny if done right, much like how a story with a predictable ending can still be good if the story is executed well, and Kazuma has shown that he can at least balance it out well, as long as the right characters on the stage, since I found myself laughing more when Misaka and Kuroko were around than when they were not.
</p><p>This is starting to seem like Magical Index is still getting ever closer to the quality of the Railgun manga and I hope that Kazuma will continue to give me something to laugh about, especially because I cannot wait to see the moment that Misaka 10032 chases Last Order around with a gun and see if it as funny in the novels as it was in Index 2, which should be released in August, according to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Certain-Magical-Index-light-novel/dp/0316360023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487977594&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=magical+index+12">Amazon</a>.
</p><p>If Kazuma fails to make me laugh any more than this, I guess that I will have good proof that Railgun is the better portion of the Raildex universe.
</p><p>The thing that I liked the most though was how this arc did not end with Touma's usual punching.
</p><p>Throughout my time following <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>, I hated how <strong>almost</strong> everything seemed to be resolved by Touma throwing a punch with his right fist, regardless of whether I was watching the anime adaptations or reading the novels, when he has full use of his body, and, much like how bland his character felt in the anime, it gave me a reason to want to see him die.
</p><p>At this moment, the Index fans reading this be wondering why I, and many others, make a big out Touma winning his fights with only one hand, since Mikoto Misaka tends to use her Railgun to finish things off in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun.html" class="italic">A Certain Scientific Railgun</a>, and that is the case for the Level Upper, Poltergeist, and Silent Party arcs, but Misaka tends to use her power over electricity in many ways to bring her opponents down, such as when she squared off against Frenda and Mugino, which shows that she is fairly adept at fighting strategically, and it ends up feeling like Misaka earned those victories, whereas Touma victories felt like it was more luck than anything, even when it is apparent that he did have a strategy in mind.
</p><p>On the other hand, in this book, even though he does seem to pull off victory against the only opponent that he fights using his usual tactics, the thing that really foiled the plans of his enemies was, as he himself said, the Daihasei Festival itself.
</p><p>Yes, this still feels like a cheap win for Touma and the gang, but it was at least more believable than many of Touma's other fights because, like Yusuke's initial encounter with Sensui in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-yu-yu-hakusho-volume-14.html" class="italic">Yu Yu Hakusho Volume 14</a>, where Yusuke did not fall into Sensui's trap, Touma had pretty much forgotten about the parade until he looked at his phone and the enemy did not take into account that possibly either.
</p><p>Honestly, if Touma could get more wins under his belt without relying so much on his right hand, people would not be thinking that he as much of a joke as he is in the anime, but I do not really see Kazuma taking this approach until one of the weakness that the Index fans know about comes to light, since it has only been hinted at once or twice now in the series, though I am not too sure if I willing to wait for World War III or whatever arc it is where Touma finally learns of that weakness, as there are people saying that Touma utilizes that weakness in his rematch against Accelerator.
</p><p>For now, I can only hope that Kazuma does not rely on Touma's right hand to fix things anymore, and will only give him a mild amount of applause for what he did here.
</p><p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at least that could not stand out on its own.
</p><p>Because my attention was held for the good majority of the time that I was reading, even having more tension usual, and that I was able to find things that were funny, and that the incident did not end the usual way, though it still felt cheap, this book was relatively decent.
</p><p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.
</p><p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about, such as the obvious fact that full enjoyment of this book can only be had by reading the previous book in the series, there was only one thing that bothered me.
</p><p>The epilogue was mostly unnecessary.
</p><p>In each of the books in this series, except for the previous book, there is an epilogue that shows what happened to Touma after he dealt with the troubles that came up and a few others talking about those events or hidden agendas, which helped add something humorous or give readers some kind of hook that will keep them coming back for more.
</p><p>The epilogue in this book, however, did not have me interested in the least to go buy the next volume because it showed what happened to an enemy that got away, and one that I did not care about in the least.
</p><p>This is not how to write an epilogue for an ongoing series, this is more suited for a epilogue to the series finale, but Kazuma does not seem to realize that.
</p><p>Yes, he does have other things that make an enjoyable epilogue, but I do not need to know what happened to the mastermind beyond a small dialogue between the protagonistand their allies.
</p><p>If that whole incident was removed from this book, I would have been much more satisfied, but, right now, I can only wonder why Kazuma thinks that he needs an epilogue at the end of every arc.
</p><p>Not every arc needs an epilogue, Kazuma! In fact, there are many works of fiction out there that do not have an epilogue, at least published at same time as the story, yet have great endings, and this one could have been one of them, but Kazuma messed it all up.
</p><p>Maybe Kazuma learned this around the time volume 11-22 got published, but seeing something like this makes me think that he is just as terrible of a writer as John Grisham has become, and that disappoints me.
</p><p>Readers want to see their favorite writers to improve and create story that are as enjoyable as, if not more enjoyable than, the last thing they wrote, but Kazuma has only seemed to have gone downhill from what he delivered in the eighth book, which was the last one I gave a pass, in spite of the one annoyance that Kazuma talked about, and that decreases my interest in this series a bit.
</p><p>I can overlook quite a bit, but there are things cannot overlook whether I want to, know the author enough to have made contact with them, or because the work was still great inspite of the flaw, and this is one of those times.
</p><p>Then again, I should just be glad that Kazuma did not write anything as bored and tedious as the first two books, because I would not have considered giving this series another chance.
</p><p>Fortunately, I have nothing else to complain about, so I can at least end things here.
</p><p>While there was only one problem with this book, it was bad enough to take this from being a great addition to the series to one of the worst.
</p><p>Despite the fact that there was quite a bit to like, the only major issue to be found outweighed those positives enough that this was only good enough to kill time or finish off the Daihasei Festival arc.
</p><p>I only recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>, because they are the only ones that will be able to really enjoy and they would have also read the previous volume.
</p><p>If you have read this book, what are your thoughts on <cite>A Certain Magical Index Volume 10</cite>? Please leave a comment and let everyone know why you liked or hated the book, especially if your reasons differ from mine or you disagree with me.
</p><p>Also, if you liked this review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>, so that I can find more worthwhile reads and see in Magical Index really is that great of a series.</p>
<img src="//blog.brycecampbell.me/media/images/index10.jpg" width="472" height="708" alt="A Certain Magical Index Volume 10 cover">
<p>I hope that everyone is doing well and looking forward to great weekend, regardless of how you plan to spend it.
</p><p>Things have been going fairly well here, especially because the title that was giving me troubles has finally been fixed, but before I can tackle the two books that I have anxiously waiting to read, I have to tackle at least one more book from my recent Amazon order, which arrived the same day as those preordered books.
</p><p>Today, I will be reviewing that book, which is called <a href="http://amzn.com/B01LX0R08I" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index Volume 10</a> by Kazuma Kamachi.
</p><p>As I have given a series synopsis in and <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index.html">earlier post</a> and this book concludes the events of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-9.html">previous book</a>, I will not be giving this book any summary.
</p><p>While Magical Index does not have that great of reputation with me, its books have been decent for me to at least desire to see what happens next, but I kept expecting it fail, thanks to the bad impression that the anime adaptations gave me.
</p><p>Fortunately, after reading this, I can say that kind of liked it.
</p><p>From the moment that I first opened up this book, I did not feel like putting it down for any reason, at least until I reached the epilogue, though I do have to satisfy the same needs as everyone, and there was also quite a bit of noise pollution.
</p><p>Yes, a lot of the books I have recently finished did not fail me in this regard, but Kazuma Kamachi has been having an awfully hard time maintaining my interest in events that happen in this side of the Raildex universe, except for the Tree Diagram Remnant and Sisters arc, the latter of which was <strong>almost</strong> as good in the novel series as Railgun's side of the story was in the Railgun manga and Railgun S anime, and that has kept me from wanting to say that this is as great as a small minority claims.
</p><p>However, in this book, Kazuma was able to hold my attention for far longer than he has been able to when his series did not revolve around either Accelerator or the Railgun cast, which makes me want to give him a thumbs up.
</p><p>Hopefully, the day will come in which my interest is not heightened in this series just because a character I like, or, in the case of the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-8.html">eighth book</a>, one that comes off better when said character is making strong advances on a character I like, but that remains to be seen because Yen Press released five books in the year that they published the <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-a-certain-magical-index-volume-1.html">first book</a>, yet only published four books last year, since this volume just got released this month, so I am not too sure when the stuff found in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-magical-index-ii.html" class="italic">A Certain Magical Index II</a> will be fully publish and the arcs that Index fans say outshines Railgun's Sisters arc will be officially released here.
</p><p>For now, I will just give Kazuma credit for holding my interest, even though the main reason that my interest was held was because of how well the last book, which was released back in November of last year, according to <a href="http://amzn.com/B01CO4AUVS">Amazon</a>, ended.
</p><p>If it had not ended the way it did, I would have been angry at myself for picking up Magical Index again so quickly, since it would have been no better than what was found in the anime.
</p><p>I also liked how there was a lot of tension in the air.
</p><p>Even though the Magical Index anime and novels are two very different works, as confirmed by Magical Index fans and Yoshihiro Togashi in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-yu-yu-hakusho-volume-10.html" class="italic">Yu Yu Hakusho Volume 10</a>, when he talked about the anime adaptation of his own work, the one thing that Kazuma Kamachi has had troubles with is keeping things intense, and, in cases like the first two books, he sometimes fails to make things feel as intense as they should, whereas almost every fight and arc in Railgun, except for the fight that happens between Misaka, Touma, and Gunha at the end of Railgun's Daihasei Festival arc and a few others, has enough tension that has me on the end of my seat from start to finish.
</p><p>Here, however, there was almost no moment where I did not feel like I was on the edge of my seat, almost like I was reading the Sisters arc or Tree Diagram Remnant arc all over again.
</p><p>This is what I wanted to see all along in this series and Kazuma delivered.
</p><p>Seriously, if Magical Index were more like this towards the beginning, I would have been more enthusiastic about this series than I am, and there would probably be a few more fans of Index than there are of Railgun.
</p><p>Unfortunately, it took Kazuma too much time to be able to get this far with his and I will probably never be able to recommend any of these books to those that are not part of the Index fandom, unless it has relevance to the Railgun series like the Tree Diagram Remnant arc did.
</p><p>Another nice thing about this book was that there a few more times that I actually felt like laughing than I did in the last book.
</p><p>While it is more of the same things that many of the people in the Raildex community would be familiar with already, I still found myself chuckling quite a few times.
</p><p>Now, this series, like many anime and manga, rely on stuff that people would generally associate with <em>low class</em> comedy, but I have said time and again that such things can still be funny if done right, much like how a story with a predictable ending can still be good if the story is executed well, and Kazuma has shown that he can at least balance it out well, as long as the right characters on the stage, since I found myself laughing more when Misaka and Kuroko were around than when they were not.
</p><p>This is starting to seem like Magical Index is still getting ever closer to the quality of the Railgun manga and I hope that Kazuma will continue to give me something to laugh about, especially because I cannot wait to see the moment that Misaka 10032 chases Last Order around with a gun and see if it as funny in the novels as it was in Index 2, which should be released in August, according to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Certain-Magical-Index-light-novel/dp/0316360023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1487977594&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=magical+index+12">Amazon</a>.
</p><p>If Kazuma fails to make me laugh any more than this, I guess that I will have good proof that Railgun is the better portion of the Raildex universe.
</p><p>The thing that I liked the most though was how this arc did not end with Touma's usual punching.
</p><p>Throughout my time following <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>, I hated how <strong>almost</strong> everything seemed to be resolved by Touma throwing a punch with his right fist, regardless of whether I was watching the anime adaptations or reading the novels, when he has full use of his body, and, much like how bland his character felt in the anime, it gave me a reason to want to see him die.
</p><p>At this moment, the Index fans reading this be wondering why I, and many others, make a big out Touma winning his fights with only one hand, since Mikoto Misaka tends to use her Railgun to finish things off in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/anime-review-a-certain-scientific-railgun.html" class="italic">A Certain Scientific Railgun</a>, and that is the case for the Level Upper, Poltergeist, and Silent Party arcs, but Misaka tends to use her power over electricity in many ways to bring her opponents down, such as when she squared off against Frenda and Mugino, which shows that she is fairly adept at fighting strategically, and it ends up feeling like Misaka earned those victories, whereas Touma victories felt like it was more luck than anything, even when it is apparent that he did have a strategy in mind.
</p><p>On the other hand, in this book, even though he does seem to pull off victory against the only opponent that he fights using his usual tactics, the thing that really foiled the plans of his enemies was, as he himself said, the Daihasei Festival itself.
</p><p>Yes, this still feels like a cheap win for Touma and the gang, but it was at least more believable than many of Touma's other fights because, like Yusuke's initial encounter with Sensui in <a href="//blog.brycecampbell.me/book-review-yu-yu-hakusho-volume-14.html" class="italic">Yu Yu Hakusho Volume 14</a>, where Yusuke did not fall into Sensui's trap, Touma had pretty much forgotten about the parade until he looked at his phone and the enemy did not take into account that possibly either.
</p><p>Honestly, if Touma could get more wins under his belt without relying so much on his right hand, people would not be thinking that he as much of a joke as he is in the anime, but I do not really see Kazuma taking this approach until one of the weakness that the Index fans know about comes to light, since it has only been hinted at once or twice now in the series, though I am not too sure if I willing to wait for World War III or whatever arc it is where Touma finally learns of that weakness, as there are people saying that Touma utilizes that weakness in his rematch against Accelerator.
</p><p>For now, I can only hope that Kazuma does not rely on Touma's right hand to fix things anymore, and will only give him a mild amount of applause for what he did here.
</p><p>Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at least that could not stand out on its own.
</p><p>Because my attention was held for the good majority of the time that I was reading, even having more tension usual, and that I was able to find things that were funny, and that the incident did not end the usual way, though it still felt cheap, this book was relatively decent.
</p><p>Although I liked the book, there are some issues.
</p><p>However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about, such as the obvious fact that full enjoyment of this book can only be had by reading the previous book in the series, there was only one thing that bothered me.
</p><p>The epilogue was mostly unnecessary.
</p><p>In each of the books in this series, except for the previous book, there is an epilogue that shows what happened to Touma after he dealt with the troubles that came up and a few others talking about those events or hidden agendas, which helped add something humorous or give readers some kind of hook that will keep them coming back for more.
</p><p>The epilogue in this book, however, did not have me interested in the least to go buy the next volume because it showed what happened to an enemy that got away, and one that I did not care about in the least.
</p><p>This is not how to write an epilogue for an ongoing series, this is more suited for a epilogue to the series finale, but Kazuma does not seem to realize that.
</p><p>Yes, he does have other things that make an enjoyable epilogue, but I do not need to know what happened to the mastermind beyond a small dialogue between the protagonistand their allies.
</p><p>If that whole incident was removed from this book, I would have been much more satisfied, but, right now, I can only wonder why Kazuma thinks that he needs an epilogue at the end of every arc.
</p><p>Not every arc needs an epilogue, Kazuma! In fact, there are many works of fiction out there that do not have an epilogue, at least published at same time as the story, yet have great endings, and this one could have been one of them, but Kazuma messed it all up.
</p><p>Maybe Kazuma learned this around the time volume 11-22 got published, but seeing something like this makes me think that he is just as terrible of a writer as John Grisham has become, and that disappoints me.
</p><p>Readers want to see their favorite writers to improve and create story that are as enjoyable as, if not more enjoyable than, the last thing they wrote, but Kazuma has only seemed to have gone downhill from what he delivered in the eighth book, which was the last one I gave a pass, in spite of the one annoyance that Kazuma talked about, and that decreases my interest in this series a bit.
</p><p>I can overlook quite a bit, but there are things cannot overlook whether I want to, know the author enough to have made contact with them, or because the work was still great inspite of the flaw, and this is one of those times.
</p><p>Then again, I should just be glad that Kazuma did not write anything as bored and tedious as the first two books, because I would not have considered giving this series another chance.
</p><p>Fortunately, I have nothing else to complain about, so I can at least end things here.
</p><p>While there was only one problem with this book, it was bad enough to take this from being a great addition to the series to one of the worst.
</p><p>Despite the fact that there was quite a bit to like, the only major issue to be found outweighed those positives enough that this was only good enough to kill time or finish off the Daihasei Festival arc.
</p><p>I only recommend this to fans of <cite>A Certain Magical Index</cite>, because they are the only ones that will be able to really enjoy and they would have also read the previous volume.
</p><p>If you have read this book, what are your thoughts on <cite>A Certain Magical Index Volume 10</cite>? Please leave a comment and let everyone know why you liked or hated the book, especially if your reasons differ from mine or you disagree with me.
</p><p>Also, if you liked this review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5047670">Patreon</a>, so that I can find more worthwhile reads and see in Magical Index really is that great of a series.</p>